GitHub Copilot X

Copilot X. © GitHub.

GitHub, owned by Microsoft, is making large strides to overhaul its Copilot system to integrate OpenAI’s GPT-4 model. This new version of the programming assistance tool brings voice support and a chatbot to the integrated development environment (IDE). The chatbot can recognize and explain code, recommend changes, and fix bugs. The tool’s new potential goes far beyond simple smart code autocompletion and brings it closer to functioning as a true coding assistant, like Microsoft’s new Copilot for Microsoft 365 Apps. “It’s a similar idea to the Bing chat or the Microsoft Edge sidebar, but bringing that into the developer workflow,” says Thomas Dohmke, GitHub CEO. “I think for developers the difference between GitHub Copilot and Bing is that Copilot is focused on code. You can ask it to fix your code, ask it to explain the code to you, and you can actually ask it to write a unit test.” Voice support means you won't even need a keyboard to code. With the “Hey, GitHub!” feature, you voice-command Copilot to answer questions or suggest lines of code. Also useful, the wizard can find you up-to-date answers in all React, Azure, and MDN documentation. This new Copilot X system will initially only be available in Microsoft's Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code applications, but GitHub plans to expand it to other IDEs in the future.

Copilot had a big role in a million developers’ productivity, helping them code up to 55% faster, according to GitHub. Thomas Dohmke thinks this will increase further with these new chat features, and that AI assistants like Copilot are going to change how people learn to code in the future.

⇨ YouTube, “GitHub Copilot X”

⇨ The Verge, Tom Warren, “GitHub Copilot gets a new ChatGPT-like assistant to help developers write and fix code.”

2023-03-22