Good Ol’ VS Code

In 2024, despite the rise of AI-enhanced IDEs, VS Code’s unparalleled blend of simplicity, extensibility, and familiarity has kept it the standard-bearer for developers worldwide.

While Cursor—a fork of VS Code—brings AI features to the table, it hasn’t quite dethroned its parent. Developers argue that fancy features only go so far; at its core, effective coding depends on the coder’s skill, not just their tools. 

Jaana Dogan, a principal engineer at Google, aptly puts it: “Microsoft may not fully grasp the footprint of VS Code.” This sentiment echoes in developer discussions across platforms like X, where the essence of coding mastery often overshadows debates over the best IDE.

VS Code’s adaptability is its secret sauce. Its robust ecosystem of extensions enables developers to tailor the tool to their unique workflows, often rendering AI rivals like Cursor redundant. While AI tools lower the barriers for newcomers, critics note they risk promoting surface-level skills without fostering a deep understanding of code. “All the best programmers I know just code and don’t care about the IDE,” quipped a developer. 

Looking ahead, AI-enhanced IDEs are poised to become the norm, offering features like real-time code analysis and automatic corrections. Yet, for now, VS Code remains unshakeable—an irreplaceable hybrid of power and simplicity that developers trust. So, are new AI tools truly the future, or will the foundations laid by tools like VS Code continue to dominate? Read to find out. 

2025 Belongs to AI Agents, and India Leads the Way

India is set to lead the AI agent revolution in 2025, leveraging its tech expertise and innovation-first mindset. “Each one of us will have an AI agent that knows us really well, analyses our routines, and enhances our efficiency,” said CP Gurnani, co-founder of AIonOS, at the MachineCon GCC Summit 2024. 

Companies like Kore AI, powered by Redis’s capabilities, are already driving this transformation. With innovations like Redis 8 and integrations with LangChain, Microsoft Azure, and AWS Bedrock, Redis addresses key challenges like memory, latency, and flexibility, making it an essential platform for building AI agents. 

As Manvinder Singh, Redis’s VP of AI product management, puts it, “Redis’s speed and versatility are critical to scaling AI innovation.” With India at the helm, the future of AI agents is closer than ever. Read more here.

AI Vibes Only

AI models are no longer judged solely on metrics like accuracy and clarity but instead on their ‘vibes’. Qualities like tone, style, and emotional resonance are shaping user preferences in unexpected ways. Researchers like Lisa Dunlap are developing tools like VibeSystem to capture these subtleties, showing how models like GPT-4 and Claude win users over with their ability to “feel right” in open-ended tasks like storytelling. 

While subjective and tricky to standardise, vibes add a richer layer to traditional benchmarks, enhancing our understanding of user experience. Reka AI is taking this further with Vibe-Eval, testing models against nuanced, challenging prompts to highlight their human-like qualities. As AI continues to grow, will “vibe check” become the ultimate measure of success? Read to find out.

AI Bytes >> 

• Google is looking to release Gemini 2 Flash, an advanced omnimodal AI model rumoured to excel in text, image, and audio generation, building on the recently unveiled Gemini-exp-1206. 

• NVIDIA has launched NVILA visual language models that outperform rivals like GPT-4o Mini and Llama 3.2. These models achieve superior efficiency, reduced training costs, and enhanced accuracy through innovative techniques like token compression and FP8 precision. 

• Anthropic to soon release Claude 3.5 Haiku, a fast, text-only AI model to the public. It is currently accessible via API on AWS Bedrock and Google Vertex AI. 

• EY has launched the EY.ai Global AI Advisory Council, bringing together experts like IIT Bombay's Sunita Sarawagi to guide AI innovation, societal impact, and industry transformation while addressing challenges such as climate change, healthcare, and equitable AI adoption.