The existing Copilot features of GitHub are expanding with Large Language Models (LLM) and the GPT-4 foundation. The Copilot feature for GitHub has been available to developers all over the world for the last 6 to 8 months. That feature was based on the Codex LLM and was helpful in making suggestions on code based on surrounding code created by the developer. With the new Copilot X feature, the GPT-4 model is now coming to GitHub. This new capability will allow a developer to use natural language to describe the code they are trying to create, and GitHub will help automatically write major portions of the code. The capability will also help identify potential code defects, tests that might be needed, and even help document the code. Additional information on the new GitHub Copilot X capabilities can be found here.
Why This Matters
- Copilot X will allow large portions of code to be written using natural language. For example, a developer could enter, “Write a PowerShell script to open a connection to Azure, capture credentials, create a new Azure OpenAI Service, create a new Azure Data Factory to pipe data from an existing Azure SQL Database into the Azure Cognitive Search capabilities to then feed into the Azure OpenAI Service.” Within seconds the tool would build all this code leaving the developer to focus on variables and security tokens.
- With the pilot efforts around code documentation, Copilot X may allow organizations with older, undocumented code to quickly document and capture the details helping reduce business risks.
- Copilot X is based on the GPT-4 model which has been trained against every major language and scripting tool which would also allow a single, natural language statement, be used to convert code from one language to another.
