Github has announced that its AI-powered coding assistant, Copilot, has entered general availability.
Released in private preview last yearGitHub Copilot is now available to all developers for a price of $10/month or $100/year – and at no cost to students and network maintainers. open code projects.
Github says the full-scale release of Copilot marks the “first time in software history” that AI can be widely deployed to assist with code composition.
GitHub Copilot has arrived
GitHub Copilot made an impact when it was first announced in 2021, promising a significant increase in productivity courtesy of dynamic coding suggestions for developers.
“When you enter code or comments, GitHub Copilot suggests the next line of code. But it’s not just a single word or line of code. GitHub Copilot can suggest complete methods, boilerplate code, complete unit tests, and even complex algorithms.
The tool also integrates with a wide range of development environmentsfrom Neovim to Visual Studio and JetBrains IDEs.
Some people have registered concerns about the potential for Copilot code to introduce costly inefficiencies and security vulnerabilities into projects; after all, the code generated by the service is imperfect. Meanwhile, others have raised questions about code ownership and legal responsibilities.
In general, however, the tool seems to have been well received by the developer community. Since its initial launch, more than 1.2 million people have tried Copilot, a third of whom remain regular users. According to Github, nearly 40% of newly written code is now suggested by Copilot in projects supported by the service.
“Just like the rise of compilers and open source, we believe that AI-assisted coding will fundamentally change the nature of software development, giving developers a new tool to write code easier and faster so they can be happier. in their lives,” said GitHub.
Now that Copilot has been made available to individual developers, the next step will be for Github to bring the service to large development teams. The company says it will allow enterprise customers to buy large licenses from multiple places through the end of the year.