Rust Gets a New Home - Green Key Resources

06Jun

Rust is being saved.

A consortium of Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Huawei, Mozilla and Google last week launched the Rust Foundation committing $2 million to sustain the organization.

If you’re wondering why anyone would want to do that, you’re obviously not an IT professional or a gamer.

Rust is a programming language so beloved by developers that for years they’ve overwhelmingly rated it ahead of all other languages like Python, Typescript and C# on Stack Overflow’s annual “Most Loved, Most Dreaded” survey.

Despite the thousands of volunteers who contribute to the open-source project, when Mozilla, its sponsor, began laying off staff last year Rust’s future was endangered. Mozilla, best known for its Firefox browser, began developing Rust a decade ago, says Techcrunch, as an alternative to C/C++ to improve Firefox performance.

Since getting a public release in 2015 Rust has been widely adopted by organizations worldwide, including such groups as Dropbox, Postmates and the New Zealand Fire Service.

“Mozilla incubated Rust to build a better Firefox and contribute to a better Internet,” said Bobby Holley, Mozilla and Rust Foundation Board member. “In its new home with the Rust Foundation, Rust will have the room to grow into its own success, while continuing to amplify some of the core values that Mozilla shares with the Rust community.”

In a blog post about the new foundation, its interim executive director Ashley Williams described Rust as a “a barrier-breaking technology — deconstructing previously assumed-immovable tradeoffs and binary oppositions.”

But more than just a programming language, she says, “Rust’s product is the experience of being a Rust developer… One of the most powerful driving forces of the Rust project is the simultaneous belief in the power of systems programming and the commitment to ensuring that such power is wieldable by everyone.”

In its report, Techcrunch said each of the sponsors uses Rust in developing or rebuilding “core aspects of some of their stacks.” Microsoft recently formed a Rust team. Google is funding a project to improve the Apache webserver using Rust.

Photo by Max Duzij

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Healthcare, Information Technology

Jun 6, 2023

AI Chatbots Could Ease Demand on COVID-19 Hotlines

Healthcare, Information Technology

Jun 6, 2023

AI Chatbots Could Ease Demand on COVID-19 Hotlines

A solution to overtaxed COVID-19 hotlines could be only a chatbot away.

Researchers from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business found that when callers felt comfortable in the chatbot’s ability they considered the bot at least as good as a human.

“The primary factor driving user response to screening hotlines — human or chatbot — is perceptions of the agent’s ability,” said Alan Dennis, chair of internet systems at Kelley and corresponding author of the paper to be published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

“When ability is the same, “he said, “Users view chatbots no differently or more positively than human agents.”

Noting that, as they write in their report, “The sudden unprecedented demand for [COVID-19] information is overwhelming resources,” Dennis and three other researchers set out to learn if people would use a chatbot and follow its advice. They presented text chats between callers and agents. Each study participant saw the same exact chat. Some were told the agent was a bot; others were told it was a human.

The researchers found the participants biased, believing the chatbots less able than a human agent. Those who trusted the provider of the chatbot service were more comfortable in the bot’s ability.

“The results show that the primary factor driving patient response to COVID-19 screening hotlines (human or chatbot) is users’ perceptions of the agent’s ability,” the researchers wrote. Driving that perception is the user’s trust in the provider of the screening hotline.

“A secondary factor for persuasiveness, satisfaction, likelihood of following the agent’s advice, and likelihood of use was the type of agent, with participants reporting they viewed chatbots more positively than human agents.”

“This positive response may be because users feel more comfortable disclosing information to a chatbot, especially socially undesirable information, because a chatbot makes no judgment,” they theorized.

To make hotline callers more comfortable and confident speaking with a chatbot, the researchers suggest the sponsoring organization develop “a strong messaging campaign that emphasizes the chatbot’s ability. Because trust in the provider strongly influences perceptions of ability, building on the organization’s reputation may also prove useful.”

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