GitHub on Tuesday launched a technical preview of a new
AI-powered pair programming[1]
tool that aims to help software developers write better code across
a variety of programming languages, including Python, JavaScript,
TypeScript, Ruby, and Go.
Copilot[2], as the code synthesizer
is called, has been developed in collaboration with OpenAI[3], and leverages Codex, a
new AI system that’s trained on publicly available source code and
natural language with the goal of translating comments and code
written by a user into auto-generated code snippets.
“GitHub Copilot draws context from the code you’re working on,
suggesting whole lines or entire functions,” GitHub CEO Nat
Friedman said[4]
in a blog post. “It helps you quickly discover alternative ways to
solve problems, write tests, and explore new APIs without having to
tediously tailor a search for answers on the internet.”
Despite its function as an AI-based autocomplete for writing
boilerplate code, the Microsoft-owned software repository hosting
and version control platform reiterated that Copilot is not
designed to write code on behalf of the developer, while noting
that users can cycle through alternative suggestions and manually
edit suggested code.
Given that the code suggestions are based on a selection of
English language and source code from publicly available sources,
including code in public repositories on GitHub, the company
explicitly spelled out the security consequences that may arise out
of relying on low-quality code from the training set, leading to
“insecure coding patterns, bugs, or references to outdated APIs or
idioms.”
In other words, the code suggested by GitHub Copilot “should be
carefully tested, reviewed, and vetted, like any other code.”
However, if it’s any consolation, the code generated by Copilot
is largely unique, with a test performed by GitHub finding that
only 0.1% of generated code[5] could be found verbatim
in the training set. The company also said it has filters in place
to block offensive words and avoid generating suggestions in
sensitive contexts.
GitHub Copilot is currently available as an extension[6]
for Microsoft’s cross-platform code editor Visual Studio Code, both
locally on the machine or in the cloud on GitHub
Codespaces[7].
References
- ^
pair
programming (en.wikipedia.org) - ^
Copilot
(copilot.github.com) - ^
OpenAI
(openai.com) - ^
said
(github.blog) - ^
only
0.1% of generated code (docs.github.com) - ^
extension
(marketplace.visualstudio.com) - ^
GitHub
Codespaces (github.com)