GitHub Copilot
A New Generation of AI Programmers
What is GitHub Copilot?
GitHub Copilot is an Al pair programmer. GitHub Copilot is powered by a new Al system developed by OpenAI Codex and is coming soon to Visual Studio Code.
It aims to help Programmers code faster. It basically draws context from the code you’re working on, suggesting whole lines or entire functions.
OpenAI Codex has a broad knowledge of how people use code and is significantly more capable than GPT-3 in code generation
How Does GitHub Copilot Work?
It can suggest complete lines of code or entire functions by analyzing how you code. GitHub Copilot can assemble code from user comments and predicts your code by just reading the function name you have declared.
It allows you to cycle through alternative suggestions and manually edit the suggested code. It autofill repetitive code, or create unit tests for your methods.
How Good Is GitHub Copilot?
The Technology is Truly Encouraging
Copilot helps developers to quickly discover alternative ways to solve problems, write tests, and explore new APIs without having to tediously tailor a search for answers on sites like Stack Overflow and across the internet.
NOTE:
It is said to have been tested against a set of Python functions that have good test coverage in open source repositories by blanking out the function bodies and asked GitHub Copilot to fill them in.
The model got this right 43% of the time on the first try, and 57% of the time when allowed 10 attempts. And it’s getting smarter all the time.
No. GitHub Copilot tries to understand your intent and to generate the best code it can, but the code it suggests may not always work or even make sense. “GitHub Copilot draws context from the code you’re working on.
The algorithm consistently improves by recording whether each suggestion is accepted or not.
Will Your private Code Be shared With other Users?
No. They claim to use telemetry data, including information about which suggestions users accept or reject, to improve the model.
AVAILABILITY
For now, GitHub Copilot will only be made available to use in Visual Studio Code and the access is limited to a small group of testers. The Preview version is available for free. The preview version is already installed by 88,783 coders.
Will GitHub Copilot Affect Developers Jobs?
Copilot autocompletes code snippets, suggests new lines of code, and can even write whole functions based on the description provided. It adapts to the way you write code and helps you complete the work faster.
The technology will enable existing engineers to be more productive, reducing manual tasks and helping them focus on interesting work.
It only suggests a piece of code, it still needs to be reviewed and tested manually like you normally do with every other code.
Conclusion:
It is very interesting to observe how events will now unfold and what the future holds for us but regardless, I do not think that it will replace developer jobs anytime soon…
“Skills are never taught, they are acquired. I can give you a camera, but can’t feed your vision”
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LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/athi-guru-k🇮🇳-2b245
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