Good Morning! Cognition AI has launched Devin, an autonomous AI agent that can plan and execute entire software engineering projects from a single prompt, outperforming other AI models on a coding test. Discord is launching an Embedded App SDK on March 18th to allow developers to build rich apps and games inside Discord's interface, while Google paid out $10 million in bug bounties to security researchers in 2023.

— Forrest Knight & Meghanadh Vasireddy

Devin, the first AI software engineer

Cognition AI has launched Devin, an autonomous AI agent that can plan and execute entire software engineering projects from a single prompt.

Devin's Capabilities (demo video)

• Works in its own code editor and browser sandbox

• Can recall relevant context and learn over time

• Able to fix its own mistakes

On the SWE-bench test for solving real open-source software issues, Devin outperformed specialized AI coding models as well as large language models like GPT-4 and Claude. Unassisted, it correctly resolved 13.86% of issues end-to-end, compared to just 1.96% for the previous state-of-the-art.

Impressive Feats

• Benchmarked an AI model across different APIs

• Fixed errors to successfully build the project it was working on

Devin is not intended to replace human engineers. It is described as an "AI teammate" that can augment workflows by automating tasks and accelerating timelines.

Access and Details

• Cognition plans to offer early access to Devin for engineering teams soon

• Technical details around the underlying AI model remain unclear

Read More Here

Discord announces SDK for in-app experiences

Discord has allowed select apps and simple mini-games to run through its Activities feature previously. However, the company is now taking a major step forward by opening up its platform to developers.

The Embedded App SDK:

• On March 18th, Discord is launching the Embedded App SDK.

• This toolkit will enable developers to build full-fledged apps and games that work directly embedded inside Discord's chat interface using iframes.

• The SDK opens up Discord for developers to create rich, interactive experiences that live right inside the platform's voice and text channels.

To encourage development, Discord is running an "App Pitches" contest, awarding up to $30,000 in funding for the best prototypes submitted by developers.

Discord's Vision: "We want Discord to be where your app starts, finds its community, and easily shares with friends," Discord stated, underlining its ambition to evolve into a premier platform for app development, distribution, and discovery, especially for gaming communities.

Alongside the SDK, Discord is testing a feature that will allow users to add approved apps to their accounts, enabling seamless access to those apps across all servers.

The Bigger Picture:

• These moves reinforce Discord's shift from being just a voice/text chat service to an interactive app ecosystem.

• However, they also follow layoffs impacting 17% of Discord's staff, highlighting the need for sustainable user growth and monetization strategies.

• The Embedded App SDK paves the way for much deeper integrations within Discord's communications channels, going far beyond the platform's previous support for basic mini-games.

Read More Here

Google Rewards Security Researchers with $10M in Bug Bounties

Google has a bug bounty program that rewards security researchers for responsibly disclosing vulnerabilities in its products and services. In 2023, Google paid out $10 million through these programs to 632 researchers across 68 countries.

Android:

• Over $3.4 million awarded for Android vulnerabilities

• Maximum critical bug bounty increased to $15,000

• A new program focused on first-party Android apps was launched

Chrome Browser: $2.1 million was paid out for 359 unique Chrome security bugs found by researchers. A key change was adding MiraclePtr technology to prevent use-after-free vulnerabilities from being exploited. Google also introduced new bounties for bypassing MiraclePtr's protections.

Google is expanding its scope to generative AI security risks. A live hacking event targeting large language model products like Bard resulted in $87,000 paid out for 35 critical vulnerability reports.

New Initiatives:

• Bonus Awards program offers extra rewards for specific targets

• v8CTF competition explores new vulnerability discovery techniques for Chrome's JavaScript engine

Read More Here

🔥 More Notes

• Ukraine open-sourced government services platform Diia (digital identity, services, mobile apps)

• DBOS announces FaaS platform DBOS Cloud and $8.5 million in seed funding

• Attackers could access private GitHub repositories by using... ChatGPT!

Youtube Spotlight

VR powered by N64

The video shows the process of connecting an Oculus dk1 to a modded N64, allowing for a low-fidelity N64 VR experience. He covers the steps of reading the sensor data from the Oculus, rendering the point of view for each eye, creating an impressive environment to showcase the VR technology, and the challenges faced in terms of resolution and lag.

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