Can AI help solve the COBOL code crisis?

<figure> <img alt="" data-caption="A computer running COBOL 73, an antiquated computer programming language, awaits taxpayer information entries at the Internal Revenue Service in Austin, Tx., on Friday, June 10, 2022. | Image: Getty Images" data-portal-copyright="Image: Getty Images" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/gettyimages-1246435991.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" /> <figcaption> A computer running COBOL 73, an antiquated computer programming language, awaits taxpayer information entries at the Internal Revenue Service in Austin, Tx., on Friday, June 10, 2022. | Image: Getty Images </figcaption> </figure> <p class="has-drop-cap wp-block-paragraph">What do the IRS, banks, airlines, and government infrastructure around the world have in common? They're all running on systems propped up by antique computer code that nobody dares touch, lest everything come crashing down.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">OpenAI thinks it may have a solution. On October 19th, the company <a href="https://openai.com/index/low-resource-programming-languages/">touted</a> "substantial improvements" in its latest AI models' ability to migrate aging software written in older programming languages into modern code, which it claims could help organizations with "maintaining and modernizing older systems."</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">That's a potentially massive deal. COBOL, one of the languages highlighted by OpenAI, remains stubbornly embedded …</p> <p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/1018434/cobol-migration-legacy-code-openai-anthropic">Read the full story at The Verge.</a></p>