OpenAI Enhances Model Capabilities for Low-Resource Languages Like COBOL and Fortran

45% mixed 35% skeptical Questions this post answers OpenAI states its latest model advances improve performance on low-resource programming languages including COBOL, Fortran, and Visual Basic, aiming to help developers understand decades of accumulated business logic in legacy systems and modernize them while preserving existing functionality. No specific benchmark results or model names were disclosed to support this claim. Teams weighing AI tools for legacy migrations can track real-world results on daily.dev. Placeholder image for anonymous user 2 sources #### Would you recommend this post? [...] # OpenAI says its latest models are better at COBOL, Fortran and Visual Basic ## Community take Updated 36m ago 391 comments Reaction is mostly jokes and skepticism about banks finally retiring their COBOL staff, with a recurring serious thread arguing the real challenge isn't the language but recovering 40 years of undocumented business logic and verifying behavioral equivalenc

COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language; /ˈkoʊbɒl, -bɔːl/) is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use. It is an imperative, procedural, and, since 2002, object-oriented language. COBOL is primarily used in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments. COBOL is still widely used in applications deployed on mainframe computers, such as large-scale batch and transaction processing jobs. Many large financial institutions were developing new systems in the language as late as 2006, but most programming in COBOL today is purely to maintain existing applications. Programs are being moved to new platforms, rewritten in modern languages, or replaced with other software. [...] ### Modernization efforts [edit] In 2006 and 2012, Computerworld surveys (of 352 readers) found that over 60% of organizations used COBOL (more than C++ and Visual Basic .NET) and that for half of those, COBOL was used for the majority of their inter

Once upon a time, when the world and computers were new, I was in an Associate's Degree program for Data Processing—there were no "computer science" programs then—in which I had to study accounting, math, statistics, and three computer languages: IBM/360 Basic Assembly Language, FORTRAN, and COBOL. By the 80's, students were being told that COBOL was a dead language, and no one was studying it any more. Now, in 2020, governments and banks are pleading for COBOL programmers, the language that wouldn't die. Governor Laura Kelly of Kansas said:

Although COBOL is considered a legacy system, many government and private sector organizations continue to use it to run financial, administrative and business applications. In fact, COBOL’s imperative, procedural and (in its newer iterations) object-oriented configuration serves as the foundation for more than 40% of all online banking systems.1 It also supports 80% of in-person credit card transactions, handles 95% of all ATM transactions, and powers systems that generate more than USD 3 billion of commerce each day.1 Due to its superior stability and processing power, it continues to play an integral role in helping businesses maintain apps and programs in existing architectures. [...] Stability COBOL is known for its stable, reliable performance in mission-critical applications. Systems written in COBOL tend to have high uptime and experience few failures, which is vital to the nonstop operations of financial institutions and government services. Scalability Developers can

## What Was Posted on X > Our latest model advances bring stronger capabilities for building and migrating software in low-resource programming languages such as COBOL, Fortran, and Visual Basic. > > These languages power software that banks, governments, and businesses depend on. Progress here means understanding decades of business logic and helping developers modernize those systems while preserving what works. > > We’re building these capabilities around the challenges developers and enterprise customers bring us. If your team is working on these systems, tell us which languages and workflows we should tackle next. > > > > — OpenAI (@OpenAI) Oct 19 22:30 [...] OpenAI’s own post at 22:30 UTC on 19 October says its latest models bring stronger capabilities for building and migrating software in low-resource languages such as COBOL, Fortran and Visual Basic, and asks teams which languages and workflows it should tackle next. The scores in this piece come from the post

Our latest model advances bring stronger capabilities for building and migrating software in low-resource programming languages such as COBOL, Fortran, and Visual Basic. These languages have less code and documentation available for models to learn from than languages like Python and JavaScript, yet support critical infrastructure and essential services around the world. COBOL supports⁠(opens in a new window) more than 40% of online banking systems, 80% of in-person credit card transactions and 95% of ATM transactions, while Fortran is used in weather forecasting⁠(opens in a new window) and nuclear record safety analysis⁠(opens in a new window). Improving AI’s ability to work in these languages could help teams maintain and modernize the software that essential services depend on. [...] Skip to main content Log inTry ChatGPT(opens in a new window) Research Products Business Developers Company Foundation(opens in a new window) Try ChatGPT(opens in a new window)Log