Artificial intelligence, and specifically generative AI technologies have been in the news quite a bit recently.
While AI gets the bulk of the media coverage, there are many other technologies that have made advances in recent years. Here are some non-AI related technologies that I am excited about:
A passkey is a digital credential, tied to a user account and a website or application. Passkeys allow users to authenticate without having to enter a username or password, or provide any additional authentication factor. This technology aims to replace legacy authentication mechanisms such as passwords.
When a user wants to sign in to a service that uses passkeys, their browser or operating system will help them select and use the right passkey. The experience is similar to how saved passwords work today. To make sure only the rightful owner can use a passkey, the system will ask them to unlock their device. This may be performed with a biometric sensor (such as a fingerprint or facial recognition), PIN, or pattern.
https://developers.google.com/identity/passkeys
A passkey can meet multi-factor authentication requirements in a single-step, effectively functioning as both a password and a one-time authorization code. Developers also only need to save a public key to their servers instead of a password, making their servers less valuable targets for malicious actors.
Wider adoption of instant cash transfers between banks, specifically enabled via FedNow.
FedNow is a new payment service that will allow financial institutions to clear payments instantly. The Federal Reserve provides the infrastructure for clearing those payments, while it’s up to banks to develop their own tools for their customers to use it. At launch, 52 institutions are using the service, including big banks like JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, credit unions, and payment processing services.
https://www.inc.com/jennifer-conrad/fednow-new-service-from-fed-enables-instant-bank-transfers.html
Both business and consumer bank accounts will be able to use the FedNow service (assuming the bank on both sides of the transaction are signed up).
WebAssembly (abbreviated Wasm) is a binary instruction format for a stack-based virtual machine. Wasm is designed as a portable compilation target for programming languages, enabling deployment on the web for client and server applications.
https://webassembly.org/
Compile languages like C, C++, and Rust into WebAssembly so that they can run on the web, alongside JavaScript.