Future of PHP In the Era of AI: Reflections for Web Designers
PHP is an old soul, created in 1994, which makes several people wonder how PHP is still relevant in this age and what will be PHP’s future in the age of the AI revolution. Progressive web designers might say that PHP will be obsolete in the era of AI, but the reality seems optimistic with some variations.
PHP is still one of the most popular programming languages and shows no signs of slowing down. There are approximately 6.3 million PHP developers in the world, which makes it one of the largest active and engaged programming communities in the world. Today, 76.8% of websites use PHP as server-side programming, the highest in the world. Below are the yearly trend statistics of the top three server-side programming languages of websites:
Still, why do people claim PHP will be obsolete in the age of AI?
There are several reasons, and we will evaluate each claim from a logical perspective. Also, how can AI help or destroy PHP’s future?
Let’s get started.
PHP and Machine Learning
Statistics and advanced probability is the backbone of machine learning. PHP is a general-purpose programming language geared toward web development. Realistically, it is not as efficient as other programming languages, like Python or R, in performing complex numerical computations, which can be slow and inefficient in PHP.
This is because PHP is a dynamically typed language, which means that data types of variables are determined at runtime, and that can lead to slower performance in the implementation of complex mathematical computations.
Networks of Libraries of PHP for AI
PHP does not have a diverse set of libraries like Tensorflow, Keras, PyTorch spacy, numpy, and pandas in Python or Shiny, dplyr, tidyr, and plotly in R for AI development. The libraries that are present at the moment in the PHP ecosystem are PHP-ML, Rubix ML, etc. These libraries can implement several deep learning concepts, but they are not enough to cover the broad spectrum of artificial intelligence.
Despite the growing popularity of AI being used in AI-powered web applications like chatbots, product recommendation systems, and fraud detection systems, the PHP community has not done any worthwhile work that can make it stand out in the AI revolution.
PHP has Security Vulnerabilities
It is true. PHP is known for having many security vulnerabilities. For example, a high-severity vulnerability was discovered in a CMS called PHPFusion, an open-source content management system(CMS) used by over 15 million websites worldwide. It is because PHP was designed for ease of use, which often comes at the expense of security.
AI can be simultaneously a security threat and a tool to locate security vulnerabilities in websites using PHP. AI tools like chatgpt can help web developers look for vulnerabilities in website code that could prevent attackers from taking advantage of security loopholes.
In this regard, the best web development companies who use PHP for website development often keep themselves updated on these security threats and take necessary measures to prevent any attack on their client’s websites. Also, people who have developed websites using PHP can read regular security updates released by the PHP community to patch known vulnerabilities.
PHP is Slow
PHP is an interpreted language, which means PHP code is not converted into machine code before its execution. Instead, the PHP interpreter reads the code line by line and executes it on the fly. This made PHP slower.
However, JIT compilation has been introduced as a supported feature in the PHP 8 and later versions. JIT compilation has improved the performance of PHP applications by compiling PHP code into native machine code at runtime. This leads to enhanced speed, especially for frequently executed code.
Still, there are other issues, and AI can provide solutions to them. AI can help improve PHP performance by analyzing code and identifying areas where code can be optimized. For example, the PHPStan static code analyzer uses AI to identify potential errors and performance bottlenecks in PHP code.
Also, the OPcache extension uses AI to generate and manage caches of frequently accessed data, which can reduce the number of queries a PHP application needs to perform, which enhances its performance.
Conclusion
Currently, PHP holds a 76.8% share of the World Wide Web, 64% of all e-commerce websites, and 45% of total websites use WordPress(built in PHP). You can have an idea of how huge is PHP’s market share in the web development field. However, in the AI landscape, If PHP wants to retain the same level of significance in the coming years, it has to develop more libraries and frameworks.
Also, AI will help decrease the shortcomings in PHP programming, which will only enhance its effectiveness. Performance, security, scalability, and modernization of PHP features will improve with the AI revolution, helping boost web developers’ productivity. So, if the PHP community plays its cards right, they will be irreplaceable in the AI landscape.
