Coinbase x402 enables instant stablecoin payments over HTTP

Person sat on a pile of coins as Coinbase has just pulled the wraps off x402—an open standard that dusts off and gives new purpose to the long-dormant HTTP "402 Payment Required" status code. The big idea is to let developers, and even AI agents, slot stablecoin payments right into the back-and-forth of web interactions.

Coinbase has just pulled the wraps off x402—an open standard that dusts off and gives new purpose to the long-dormant HTTP "402 Payment Required" status code. The big idea is to let developers, and even AI agents, slot stablecoin payments right into the back-and-forth of web interactions.

Traditional payment systems were bolted onto the digital world rather than being born from it. They're often slow, can sting with unexpected costs, are fenced in by geography, and frequently...

7 May 2025 | Blockchain

Google improves Gemini 2.5 Pro ahead of I/O 2025

Logo as Google pushes early access to a souped-up Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview ahead of their I/O 2025 developer conference in a couple of weeks.

Google has pushed early access to a souped-up Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview ahead of their I/O 2025 developer conference in a couple of weeks.

Why the hurry? Well, Google put it down to "overwhelming enthusiasm" and the "amazing things" developers were already cooking up with the previous version of Gemini 2.5 Pro. It seems they're champing at the bit to get these beefed-up capabilities into the wild.

This isn't just a fresh lick of paint. The company is championing this new...

6 May 2025 | Artificial Intelligence

AI is changing software development, but not always for the better

A row of software developers with some humans and some digital as software development is changing before our eyes, with AI becoming a real workmate for developers everywhere as highlighted by a discussion between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg during the LlamaCon event.

Software development is changing right before our eyes, with AI becoming a real workmate for developers everywhere.

This change isn’t just happening in trendy startups either, the tech giants are all in. We got a fascinating peek behind the curtain recently, thanks to a discussion between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg.

AI has already changed software development

During Meta's LlamaCon AI event, Zuckerberg directly asked Nadella about the AI...

30 April 2025 | Approaches

Endor Labs deploys AI agents to counter vibe coding risks

Bright text as Endor Labs expands its application security (AppSec) platform with agents to address development risks posed by AI and vibe coding, including what the company claims is the industry’s most comprehensive security dataset.

Endor Labs is expanding its application security (AppSec) platform with agents to address development risks posed by AI and vibe coding.

Bolstered by agentic AI and what the company claims is the industry’s most comprehensive security dataset, the platform moves beyond mere risk identification to prioritise threats, propose solutions, and even implement fixes automatically.

The move comes amid a dramatic shift in software development practices. The rise of AI coding...

23 April 2025 | Approaches

Mozilla open-source tools help developers build ethical AI datasets

Smiling cookies as Mozilla and EleutherAI unveil open-source tools to help developers build ethical AI datasets and avoid training models on copyrighted material.

Mozilla has unveiled open-source tools to help developers build ethical AI datasets and avoid training models on copyrighted material.

The reliance of many popular large language models (LLMs) on vast datasets scraped from the internet, often encompassing copyrighted works used without permission, presents a significant ethical and legal challenge.

A growing contingent within the developer community believes creating high-quality, ethically sound alternatives is not only...

22 April 2025 | Artificial Intelligence

JetBrains debuts free AI tier and Junie coding agent in IDEs

A digital being helping a human developer as JetBrains announces the integration of its AI tools – including the upgraded AI Assistant and new coding agent Junie – into its IDEs under a single subscription model, complete with a free tier.

JetBrains has announced the integration of its AI tools – including the upgraded AI Assistant and new coding agent Junie – into its IDEs under a single subscription model, complete with a free tier.

Love it or loathe it, there’s no denying that AI is disrupting the software development industry. JetBrains, for its part, views it as an opportunity to redefine developers’ roles.

“AI is taking care of basic coding tasks,” JetBrains states, enabling developers to...

16 April 2025 | Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft Research teaches AI tools how to debug code

A digital being holding a magnifying glass up to a computer as Microsoft Research introduces debug-gym, a novel environment designed to train AI coding tools in the complex art of debugging code.

Microsoft Research has introduced debug-gym, a novel environment designed to train AI coding tools in the complex art of debugging code.

As AI's role in software development expands, debug-gym aims to address a critical bottleneck: while AI can generate code efficiently, debugging remains a major time sink for developers.

The proliferation of AI coding assistants is enhancing developer productivity. GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke predicted in 2023 that "sooner than later, 80%...

11 April 2025 | Artificial Intelligence

Letting AI agents navigate and interact with the web

AI development is shifting to an important new phase, with AI agents that can pull fresh information from the web, plan, and execute tasks autonomously. These agents, instead of relying solely on their training data, can interact with the internet to find and make use of the latest data signals.

This kind of dynamic exploration is leading to tremendous advances in AI-powered task automation. With access to dynamic information, AI agents can perform all manner of actions that were...

10 April 2025 | Artificial Intelligence

Google enhances Android Studio with enterprise Gemini AI tools

Google logo as the company unveils new enterprise Gemini AI tools in Android Studio, tailored to meet their privacy, security, and management demands.

Google has unveiled new enterprise Gemini AI tools in Android Studio, tailored to meet their privacy, security, and management demands.

The update aims to empower organisations by integrating AI-powered coding assistance while addressing concerns around data protection and intellectual property (IP).

Sandhya Mohan, Product Manager for Android at Google, explained: “We’ve heard that some people at businesses have additional needs that require more sensitive data...

9 April 2025 | Analytics

Open-source AI matches coding abilities of proprietary models

Whiteboard with LLM code snippet on it as Agentica and Together AI release DeepCoder-14B-Preview an open-source model boasting coding abilities on par with proprietary models.

Agentica and Together AI are releasing DeepCoder-14B-Preview, an open-source model boasting coding abilities on par with proprietary models.

The development is a notable advancement in applying reinforcement learning (RL) to coding, an area that has traditionally lagged behind progress seen in mathematical reasoning models. The key challenge has been sourcing high-quality, verifiable coding datasets essential for effective RL training.

Overcoming data hurdles for...

9 April 2025 | Artificial Intelligence