The New Stack Podcast The New Stack

Suman Debnath, principal developer advocate for machine learning at Amazon Web Services, emphasized the advantages of using Python in machine learning during a New Stack Makers episode recorded at PyCon US. He noted Python's ease of use and its foundational role in the data science ecosystem as key reasons for its popularity. However, Debnath highlighted that building generative AI applications doesn't necessarily require deep data science expertise or Python.

Nathan Peck, a senior developer advocate for generative AI at Amazon Web Services (AWS), shares his experiences working with Python in a recent episode of The New Stack Makers, recorded at PyCon US. Although not a Python expert, Peck frequently deals with Python scripts in his role, often assisting colleagues in running scripts as cron jobs. He highlights the challenge of being a T-shaped developer, possessing broad knowledge across multiple languages and frameworks but deep expertise in only a few.

Mike Fiedler, a PyPI safety and security engineer at the Python Software Foundation, prefers the title “code gardener,” reflecting his role in maintaining and securing open source projects. Recorded at PyCon US in May, Fiedler explains his task of “pulling the weeds” in code—handling unglamorous but crucial aspects of open source contributions. Since August, funded by Amazon Web Services, Fiedler has focused on enhancing the security of the Python Package Index (PyPI). His efforts include ensuring that both packages and the pipeline are secure, emphasizing the importance of vetting third-party modules before deployment.

The name "Falcon" for the UAE’s large language model (LLM) symbolizes the national bird's qualities of courage and perseverance, reflecting the vision of the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) in Abu Dhabi. TII, launched in 2020, addresses AI’s rapid advancements and unintended consequences by fostering an open-source approach to enhance community understanding and control of AI. In this New Stack Makers, Dr. Hakim Hacid, Executive Director and Acting Chief Researcher, Technology Innovation Institute emphasized the importance of perseverance and innovation in overcoming challenges. Falcon gained attention for being the first truly open model with capabilities matching many closed-source models, opening new possibilities for practitioners and industry.

Crash-level bugs continue to pose a significant challenge due to the lack of memory safety in programming languages, an issue persisting since the punch card era. This enduring problem, described as "the Joker to the Batman" by Anil Dash, VP of developer experience at Fastly, is highlighted in a recent episode of The New Stack Makers.

In the push to integrate data into development, time series databases have gained significant importance. These databases capture time-stamped data from servers and sensors, enabling the collection and storage of valuable information. InfluxDB, a leading open-source time series database technology by InfluxData, has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to offer a managed open-source service for time series databases.

Amazon's Brad Bebee highlighted the challenges faced by customers managing open-source Influx database instances, despite appreciating its API and performance. To address this, AWS initiated a private beta offering a managed service tailored to customer needs. InfluxDB, founded in 2013, is prized for its utility in tracking measurements, metrics, and sensor data in real-time.