If you're a programmer, there's a good chance you've become exhausted from writing lengthy programs (or you will!) And you've probably wondered to yourself, "What if I had someone sitting with me to help me create these programs?"
Now you have GitHub Copilot, an Artificial Intelligence tool that helps you write your scripts more effectively. The GitHub Copilot can suggest lines of code and even complete your functions.
In this article, you'll learn more about GitHub CoPilot and what it can do for you. Let's get started!
What Is GitHub CoPilot, and How Does It Work?
GitHub is a Microsoft subsidiary company, which partnered with OpenAI (an AI research startup) to develop GitHub Copilot. You can install Copilot as an extension or use it online with GitHub Codespaces. It'll work seamlessly with Visual Studio code as well.
Meet GitHub Copilot - your AI pair programmer. https://t.co/eWPueAXTFt pic.twitter.com/NPua5K2vFS
— GitHub (@github) June 29, 2021
The AI learns from billions of source codes available on open platforms and GitHub repositories to suggest you a code line or sometimes whole functions. The developers designed Copilot to learn from developers' programs to improve its accuracy and precision with time.
Copilot will suggest the most suitable code for your program based on your preceding lines, function names, and other factors. You can accept the recommendations Copilot makes, explore what additional suggestions it proposes, make modifications to the code you acquire, or ignore it entirely; it's up to you.
To be clear, Copilot is not a simple autocomplete program, and it doesn't create your entire program for you. It's more of a context-aware tool that acts as a companion, observing your work progress and offering suggestions as you code.
What Will Copilot Do For You?
No, CoPilot isn't a machine from the future that has all the answers. It'll look at the code you're writing, recall what it's learned from billions of other programs, and then recommend what you should write next.
CoPilot, according to GitHub, understands and works well with a variety of frameworks and languages. Developers trained the learning AI tool to understand several frameworks and languages as well as source code from GitHub repositories.
The technical preview shows that it will assist you well with Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby, and Go.
Your intelligent virtual programming partner will draw context from the code you've written and produce comparable code using the functions you've used in your program. It tries to understand your intent and suggest the best code. However, the suggestions may not always be the best fit.
Based on your approval and rejection of its suggestions, it learns from you and millions of other developers to better fit your coding style. It brings together different code pieces based on your description of what you're attempting to achieve in a given program. It auto-fills code when you have repetitive phrases in your program, which will save you from typing the same code again and again. Not only that, but it can also recommend tests based on the likely errors your program could produce.
The announcement of Copilot has developers buzzing. Many are eager to get their hands on the AI tool and see what it has to offer.
What Do the Developers Say About Copilot?
Developers around the world say Copilot will make things easier for them, save a lot of their time, and help them stay focused at work.
Developers have been sharing their experiences with the new AI tool on different social media platforms. Copilot's suggestions are accurate, according to a developer working in the privacy and security industry, and it saves him a lot of time on obvious and repetitive code.
I've been testing #GitHubCopilot in Alpha for the past two weeks. Some of the code suggestions it comes up with are eerily good.
Here's a thread with some examples that I found surprising. Will update with new examples over time. https://t.co/lD5xYEV76Z
— Feross (@feross) June 30, 2021
“Copilot is one of the top three tech innovations of the 2020s,” shares in a series of tweets from a Microsoft senior researcher who has been following the development of GitHub and OpenAI's Copilot.
So stoked to finally discuss Copilot!
I've used it inside MSR for months, watched it evolve, and discussed collabs.
[Disclaimer: the tech is by the amazing @github/@openai, I'm an informed observer.]
Not exaggerating, Copilot will be in top-3 tech developments of 2020s 🧵👇 https://t.co/aoQMfpSgtT
— Alex Polozov (@Skiminok) June 29, 2021
Developers believe AI autocompletion is beneficial and here to stay. However, they doubt how much of their work will be done by AI tools like Copilot. There also remains some concern among developers that it may eventually replace them.
Will Copilot Replace You as a Developer?
GitHub CEO Nat Friedman says Copilot is a productivity tool to equip you with code-completion functionality and ideas to implement in your code. He thinks that with AI tools like Copilot, software development is entering the next productivity change phase. Friedman mentions that compilers, debuggers, garbage collectors, and languages made developers more productive in the past. Then developers shared each other's work to improve their code. Now you can use AI to code, but the problem statement is always for humans to solve.
The AI can suggest pattern matching code based on what you've already written in your program. However, to use it effectively and successfully, you will have to understand every line of your program.
Your job as a developer is not only to develop code, but create code specific to the requirements and specifications of the problem you're trying to solve. AI tools like Copilot will help you develop code quicker than you'd do on your own.
But you'll have to tell the AI tool what you expect it to do in your program. As a developer, you are always in charge of your program. It's a tool similar to email, instant messaging, Conversational AI, and everything tech that makes our life easier.
Though AI is the future of coding, the time when AI completely dominates and designs programs on its own is still a long way off.
CoPilot Will Assist the Developers
As a Developer, you're always on deadlines, and what better than a coding companion who suggests lines of code and auto-fills repetitive code to get your work done on schedule.
Copilot shows initial promise at its early stage, but even GitHub is cautious about its applicability. GitHub says that sometimes CoPilot's suggestions may not make sense or be beneficial to your program. You should always crosscheck, test, and review the coding suggestions you get from Copilot or any other AI tool.
Because nothing is flawless, there's always the possibility of Copilot making a mistake. However, the learning AI tool will make coding much easier for developers. It's very early to comment on how it will affect the developer's community in the long run. Could it even be dangerous?