This week was all about AI.
As much as I’d like to share stories outside of the mainstream, it seems that everywhere I turned this week, AI’s cheshire grin was there staring me in the face.
To be honest, I’m not going to begrudge AI (Artificial Intelligence) it’s prominence in the headlines this time around, what with all the momentum behind it recently, I knew it was only a matter of time before it would drop like a sloppy scoop of ice cream off a cone and make a mess all over the headline sidewalk.
With that said, here’s what I found of interest this week…
WP
WordPress 6.2 Beta 1 release dropped, but I think that news of the Jetpack team (along with OpenAI) testing an AI block over in the dotcom neighborhood might have overshadowed the release.
Out in front and exploring specific use cases of AI in WordPress is CodeWP, whose founder James LePage appeared on a recent podcast hosted by TorqueMag’s Doc Pop. Some of the content went over my head, but overall, I found it very interesting and educational.
SEC
We’ll segue right into the security world with WordPress since there’s always some vulnerability to report, likely coming from a plugin.
WordFence is usually on top of the game and has released their weekly report of WP plugin vulnerabilities. This is an awesome rundown that includes some very useful details for each plugin, especially whether or not a patch has been released. Keep those WP sites updated!
Outside of WP, another alarming report that around12 percent of online stores compromise user data through exposed backups is paired with the news that Reddit was hacked via phishing. Company spox say the breach may not be very severe, which leaves one to wonder what they consider to be severe.
Perhaps Reddit staff should be required to read and acknowledge Keeper blog posts moving forward, starting with these two articles on link safety and cyber hygiene. Yes, cyber hygiene is a thing.
AI
Alright, let’s not put it off any longer and get to the AI headlines.
The race to shove AI integrated search down our collective throats is on, with both Google and Microsoft creating the news. Curious, I took a peek at this info doc related to integration of AI into Google search, to confirm what I already suspected – that ‘Bard’ will be trained to filter out ‘misinformation‘ and only offer responses sourced in ‘well-established consensus’, whatever that might be.
I know I’ve already mentioned AI in WordPress, but it’s worth a read to get WPTavern’s take on it.
WEB3
With the public eye focused on AI for now, the gears of web3 world quietly continued to grind away, but not completely untouched by AI, as certain cryptocurrencies came under new scrutiny.
Brave reliably made my list as they deepened their Solana integration and collaboration, and now Unstoppable Domains is starting to pop up quite frequently on my radar these days. This time announcing integration with Ethermail, a blockchain-based email solution focused on anonymity and encryption.
As the Twitter saga unravels and Elon does his best to manhandle the rudder while fighting to chart a steady course, some on board aren’t waiting around and are jumping ship to explore alt tech in the fediverse on Mastodon and Cloudflare’s newly birthed Wildebeest.
But tech savvy users aren’t searching only for 140-characters-or-less communication alternatives. Encrypted and decentralized projects like Matrix are threatening to disrupt giants like Slack.
And finally, poor Craig Wright finds himself losing in the spotlight once again to the delight of his detractors watching the show up in stands.
MISC TECH
Filed under the miscellaneous technology category are a couple of barely noteworthy news tidbits.
First one is about Mozilla’s Thunderbird email client finally getting a much needed and long-awaited overhaul (too late for me), and the other being a mildly entertaining discussion on Hacker News among some of the thousands of tech workers currently experiencing layoffs.
DIY | RE
Bringing up this train’s mismatched caboose are stories from the struggling real estate sector and a nice innovative surprise in the DIY space.
Let’s start with the Case-Shiller report that came in highlighting not so good news, followed by details of the ongoing mortgage slide creating more difficulties in securing a loan.
As a bright spot, I discovered Bilt a couple of weeks ago while installing VCT flooring and assembling an inversion table in the same space. Bilt is a new assembly instructional app that beats out the hollow Ikea dude standing there scratching his head any day!
And with that – I’m all LinQd Out!