Artificial intelligence (AI) is the development of computer systems that can perform tasks on behalf of humans by covering a variety of techniques, from learning many things to natural language processing. The goal is to enable computers to interact with humans and things through learning, reasoning, problem-solving, and perception.
Currently, AI plays a role in software development. Developers can use AI to write the code. It reduces coding time and errors that may occur during development. An AI coding tool that is becoming popular today is GitHub Copilot.
GitHub Copilot is an AI-powered coding assistant developed by GitHub and OpenAI. This tool is designed to help you code by offering autocomplete-style suggestions. The purpose is to increase productivity and help developers write code more efficiently.
Copilot uses machine learning models which have been trained on a huge amount of public code available on GitHub. It provides code examples, comments on the source code and assists developers in writing the code. GitHub Copilot supports a wide range of programming languages and aims to improve work efficiency by providing intelligent code suggestions. This will result in reducing coding time.
Anyway, developers should be aware that GitHub Copilot may provide many benefits, but on the other hand, it also comes with disadvantages. They need to review and take time to understand the suggested code to make sure it is correct, safe, and in alignment with the project’s requirements, and to achieve goals.
Benefits of GitHub Copilot
- Providing coding suggestion to software developers immediately.
- Reducing time searching for source code on the internet.
- Providing AI that can learn your coding style and suggest code similar to your style. This data will be stored in the database for further development of AI capabilities.
- It is compatible with other developing tools, so you don’t need to use additional tools.
- Supporting a wide range of programming languages such as Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby, Go, .NET, JAVA, and more in the future.
What qualifications should developers have to use GitHub Copilot?
- Able to read and write in English
When using Copilot, you must communicate with AI in English so that AI can understand what you want. However, it is expected that additional languages will be supported in the future.
- Having a reasonable level of coding expertise
You need to check if the suggested code is exactly what you want and can work properly.
- Understanding Copilot
You should know what AI can do because currently AI cannot entirely replace developer tasks.
- Clear requirements
You must communicate clearly with Copilot what you want. If your requirements are not clear, AI may provide suggestions that do not match what you want.
Conclusion
GitHub Copilot is an AI coding assistant that supports various programming languages. It is compatible with developing tools, so you do not need to use other additional tools. However, developers have to be good at English and understand what AI can do. After getting code suggestion, you should check if it can work properly and matches what you want.
Source:
https://towardsdatascience.com
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