What is Github Copilot

Github Copilot is the new automated programming assistant, a system capable of generating code autonomously to help developers in the code to save time, provide solutions and suggest efficient alternatives.

What is Github Copilot?

Copilot is a Github service that works with OpenAI Codex to suggest code and entire functions in real-time, directly from your editor. Artificial intelligence that was trained on trillions of lines of code, to convert natural language text input into code.

How does it work?

It works through an extension in the Visual Studio Code editor. Once you have your Github account associated with VScode, the Github Copilot extension connects automatically. It is a paid service, so you need to see which plan option is right for you.

When you finish the initial setup you can try directly typing code in the editor, as soon as you start typing code it will try to autocomplete what you are coding. If you press the TAB key the suggested code will be written automatically.

You can also try to generate more complex code by writing a description of what you intend to do. For example, if you want to create a function to “Determine whether the sentiment of a text is positive using a web service”, you can simply write that description in a comment, and automatically Github Copilot will suggest the complete code for that function.

I have been using it for several months and I highly recommend it to any programmer, novice, or expert. I consider it a great tool for developers that can increase their productivity and code quality.