Good Morning! Google's in hot water as a judge declares it a search monopoly, potentially shaking up their company. Yelp's sudden API pricing change has developers up in arms, forcing some to pull their apps entirely. Meanwhile, DARPA's cooking up an AI project to automatically translate old C code into safer Rust, which could be a big deal for cybersecurity.

— Forrest Knight & Meghanadh Vasireddy

Google's Search Monopoly: The Hammer Falls

Google's been the king of search for ages. Well, it turns out those lucrative deals to be the default search engine on browsers and smartphones weren't just smart business – they were potentially illegal.

What's New: Judge Amit Mehta dropped the bombshell, stating, "Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly." Ouch. The ruling focuses on Google's exclusive contracts with companies like Apple, which the judge says have effectively blocked competitors from gaining a foothold.

This isn't just about search. The ruling could have major ripple effects:

1. AI development: Google's vast trove of search data gives it a leg up in training AI models. This advantage might be at risk.

2. Ad tech: While the judge didn't find a monopoly in search advertising, Google's ad business could still feel the heat.

3. Industry practices: Other tech giants might need to rethink their own exclusive deals.

We're heading into remedy territory. While a breakup of Alphabet seems unlikely, we could see mandated "choice screens" for search engines or limits on Google's ability to strike exclusive deals.

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Yelp's API Shake-Up

Yelp's been gradually moving developers to paid API plans since 2019. But their recent communication about this transition has sparked some serious backlash in the dev community.

• On July 19, Yelp emailed select developers about switching to paid accounts due to high API usage.

• The kicker? A mere four-day deadline to comply or risk API key deactivation.

• Pricing starts at $229/month for 1,000 daily API calls.

The Fallout: Developers are fuming over the lack of transparency and abrupt timeline. Some, like Food Genie's Nick Perkins and Restaurants' David Kopec, have already pulled their apps from stores.

Yelp's Response: After the outcry, Yelp extended free access by 90 days and apologized for the "abbreviated transition." But for many devs, the damage is done.

If you're using Yelp's API, now's the time to reassess. Consider alternatives or factor in potential costs. And remember, always have a Plan B when relying on external APIs!

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DARPA's AI-Powered Mission to Rusty Up Legacy C Code

C and C++ have been the backbone of low-level programming for decades, but they're notorious for memory safety issues. These vulnerabilities account for a huge chunk of major security flaws in large codebases. The tech world has been pushing for a shift to memory-safe languages, and now the public sector is jumping on board.

DARPA's cooking up a project called TRACTOR (TRanslating All C TO Rust). The goal? Develop AI-powered tools to automatically convert legacy C code into safe, idiomatic Rust.

The Challenges:

• Dealing with C's pointer arithmetic, which Rust doesn't allow

• Ensuring AI models don't "hallucinate" incorrect translations

• Handling the countless edge cases in language translation

While large language models (LLMs) can already do a decent job at code translation, DARPA aims to take it to the next level. They're focusing on improving translations for program constructs most relevant to memory safety.

The Impact: If successful, TRACTOR could be a game-changer for cybersecurity, especially in legacy systems and critical infrastructure. It's not just about making code safer – it's about doing it at scale and with less manual effort.

Read More Here

🔥 More Notes

• Qualys addressing LLM security risks with new tool, Qualys TotalAI

• JetBrains’ new UI is now default across all IDEs in 2024.2 update

• ‘You are a helpful mail assistant,’ and other Apple Intelligence instructions

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