"Go's Comeback: What’s Driving Its Resurgence?"

Although Go was launched amidst much excitement in late 2009 and crowned Programming Language of the Year by the TIOBE Index, its popularity has experienced fluctuations over the years.

Today, Go has re-emerged as one of the top programming languages to learn in 2024, driven by two key factors: cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI).

Cybersecurity Concerns

In December 2023, the NSA and Cybersecurity Service, in collaboration with cybersecurity experts from the U.S., Australia, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand, released a report advocating for a shift from memory-unsafe programming languages like C and C++ to memory-safe options such as Go, C#, Java, Python, Rust, and Swift.

“Memory safety vulnerabilities impact software development across all sectors,” noted Neal Ziring, technical director of the NSA Cybersecurity Directorate. “Establishing clear goals and timelines for transitioning to safer programming languages is essential for mitigating these issues.”

Go and AI

Originally developed by Google in response to the limitations of C++, Go is now an open-source language utilized by major companies including PayPal, Dropbox, Uber, Microsoft, and ByteDance for web services, backend development, and critical infrastructure. Its adoption is also growing within 'FAANG' companies—Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google—due to its efficiency and performance with large datasets, suggesting an increasing role in AI development.

According to a 2024 H1 developer survey, participants developing AI-powered services and applications affirmed that Go is a robust platform for implementing such applications in production.

AI Capabilities

Many respondents currently using or considering a switch to Go for AI workloads highlighted its core attributes—robustness, simplicity, and performance—as key reasons for their preference. Approximately a third of those building AI-powered features are already utilizing Go for various generative AI tasks, particularly for hosting API endpoints (41%) and managing data pipelines (37%).

However, many organizations initially develop AI projects in Python before transitioning to more production-ready languages, often motivated by existing investments in those languages. An increase in Go's visibility among machine learning teams could potentially encourage a shift for 10% of respondents, but unless Go's AI libraries and ecosystem evolve, Python and PyTorch are likely to remain dominant in AI development.

Both Python and Go are relatively easy to learn, making them suitable for beginners. They feature clear syntax and robust support from major cloud providers, with particularly strong backing for Go from AWS and Azure.

Salary Insights

In terms of average salaries, the Stack Overflow 2024 survey revealed that Go developers earn approximately $75,361 annually, while top earners in Erlang and Clojure exceed $95K with around 12 years of experience. In comparison, Python developers average $67,559, Cdevelopers earn $65,467, and SQL developers average $64,444.

With endorsements from cybersecurity experts and rising adoption in AI applications, Go is establishing itself as a versatile and future-proof language that is set to influence the landscape of software development. For developers aiming to enhance their skill set or pivot their careers, learning Go presents a strategic opportunity.