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:
Passkeys are a safer and easier alternative to passwords. With passkeys, users can sign in to apps and websites with a biometric sensor (such as a fingerprint or facial recognition), PIN, or pattern, freeing them from having to remember and manage passwords.
https://developers.google.com/identity/passkeys
Safer and easier than passwords? Sign me up.
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.