TestDevLab's Newsletter: Mid-March 2025

Dia Duit! ??

Since it’s March and the day after St. Patrick’s Day, we hope you enjoyed yourselves! While some are obsessing over their March basketball brackets, we've been keeping an eye on this month's tech developments.

In this month's edition, we're diving into:

From IBM to Microsoft: Key Insights from HumanX 2025
US Cyber Security Reporting Rules Under Scrutiny
The VR Research Trying to Make Autonomous Vehicles Safer

From IBM to Microsoft: Key Insights from HumanX 2025

HumanX, this year's premier AI conference in Las Vegas, brought together policymakers and tech leaders to explore the future of artificial intelligence. Here's what you need to know:

Policy Perspectives

Former VP Kamala Harris emphasized that innovation and safety are “an absolute false choice…we can and we must have both” urging government-industry collaboration. Noting America risks dealing with a problematic patchwork of state regulations. Despite partisan differences, Rep. Jay Obernolte expressed optimism about bipartisan agreement on issues like non-consensual imagery rules and technical talent development.

IBM's Small-Model Strategy

David Cox, IBM's VP for AI Models, outlined the company's focus on smaller, specialized language models through its Granite family. Rather than competing with massive general-purpose models, IBM is targeting practical business needs using: Document-specific vision models, cost-efficient reasoning capabilities that can be toggled on/off, & open-source availability. “Businesses don't need an HR chatbot that knows advanced physics” Cox noted, emphasizing ROI-focused AI solutions, that are more cost-effective than massive general-purpose systems.

Microsoft's Workplace Vision

Microsoft's vision complemented IBM's practical focus with a broader workplace transformation perspective. Microsoft's Aparna Chennapragada shared how the company is building AI agents with natural interaction, graduated autonomy, and workflow integration, and while full agent adoption remains early, she described the movement toward broader capabilities with greater delegation. Addressing concerns about job displacement, Chennapragada maintained AI will create more jobs than it replaces.

Despite their different approaches and priorities, a common thread emerged across all HumanX speakers: AI's successful integration into business and society requires balancing innovation with responsible governance, specialized tools with broader capabilities, and enhancing human potential rather than simply replacing it. HumanX speakers all highlight that as systems become more powerful and autonomous, robust software quality assurance becomes increasingly critical – not just for functionality, but for safety and reliability, something we at TestDevLab appreciate.

US Cyber Security Reporting Rules Under Scrutiny

This month at a congressional hearing in the U.S., lawmakers and industry experts criticized the patchwork of federal rules that companies must follow when reporting cyber attacks.

Recent House Homeland Security Subcommittee hearings revealed bipartisan concern over cybersecurity regulations that may be hindering rather than helping security efforts. for example, bank cybersecurity teams can spend up to 50% of their time on compliance, diverting resources from active defense against threats. The Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act (CIRCIA) implementation has drawn criticism for exceeding congressional intent and creating counterproductive reporting burdens.

Industry representatives proposed streamlining incident reporting requirements, reauthorizing the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, and reinstating the Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council. Rep. Eric Swalwell emphasized that when hackers strike, companies should focus on "eradicating the threat—not huddling with lawyers and compliance experts."

The hearings demonstrate growing momentum for regulatory reform to address persistent threats through more effective public-private partnerships. This common desire to streamline and speed up processes is indicative of an industry where active cybersecurity measures require massive resources to maintain, and partnering with experts is becoming one of the best to stay on top of it all.

In Future Vision, we aim to give you an insight into upcoming tech world developments that might not be on your radar yet.

In this edition, we’re taking a look at the research being done at Kean University where VR ?is being used to improve pedestrian safety around autonomous vehicles (AVs).

There are some of the unspoken signals drivers often exchange with pedestrians - eye contact, hand gestures, nods, etc. But what if there’s no driver?

That is what the researchers at Kean University are trying to find out. By using VR to understand how pedestrians behave when they cross the street—with the goal of identifying ways for autonomous vehicles to communicate with people and therefore improve safety.

The research is increasingly relevant as robotaxi companies expand operations and AV-related accidents have made headlines, like the 2023 incident where a Cruise vehicle struck and dragged a pedestrian. Pedestrian fatality rates are a key concern, especially as AVs become more common.

Leaders of the AV sector have been making bold promises about AV tech being safer than human drivers, and this is one of many efforts being taken to ensure that promise. As AV tech evolves this research coincides with larger software testing in the industry, which is vital when considering the lives on the line.