Is GitHub Copilot a boon or bane?
OpenAI and Microsoft have collaborated to release a preview of GitHub Copilot, an AI-based Code Generation tool that helps developers write well-optimized code. Copilot works in such a way that it takes context from the code, coded on the IDE, and suggests the whole lines and functions for the task to be performed.
What’s the story behind this AI tool?
In 2019, Microsoft invested a whopping $1 billion in OpenAI to build an AI and jointly develop new Azure AI super-computing technologies. Microsoft also holds exclusive licenses for OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model. The result is what we are now seeing in our eyes is this monster AI tool capable of almost coding the work all by itself.
GitHub Copilot is an AI pair programmer tool that works with any new framework or library. The developers can describe the function they want to perform in simple English as a comment and the Copilot will convert it to actual code. The tool is already acquainted with specific functions and features. It helps the programmer quickly discover alternative ways for problem-solving, writing tests, and exploring new APIs. The team claimed Copilot is far more advanced than the existing code assistants. It works the best when the code is split into smaller functions, using meaningful names for functions parameters.
Should Programmers be worried that their Jobs may go away?
As the name Copilot shows, the AI tool is developed to work with a programmer and not independently, and be used when we are working in a new language or framework. Besides, the code suggestions from the tool can be accepted, rejected, and can even be manually edited by a programmer. So for the time being you can chill as Copilot is at your service and won’t take away your job anytime soon. Some of the samples on GitHub’s website show the tool generating code to fetch tweets, get a Goodreads rating, and draw a scatterplot.
Even the development team suggests that Copilot is not a substitute for human programmers. GitHub Copilot tries to understand your intent and tries to generate the optimal code it can, but the code necessarily may not always work or even make sense. The Developer is always in charge in the scenario.
My Opinion
GitHub Copilot is a code synthesizer and not a search engine like Google. A vast majority of the code it suggests is unique and has not been used before. The conclusion I was able to draw from reading multiple articles is that GitHub Copilot can be your buddy and help you learn the language or framework on a practice-based approach but can also turn out to be your curse if you rely on everything you want to code and crush the developer in you.
Share your opinion in the comments!
