- General Availability.
- As of today, Copilot Chat is included as a part of GitHub Copilot paid tiers and free for verified teachers, students, and maintainers of certain open source projects.
- Lack of Changes Since Beta.
- Not much has changed since the beta. The chatbot is still powered by GPT-4, OpenAI’s flagship generative AI model, fine-tuned for dev scenarios.
- Concerns and Lawsuits.
- However, concerns have been raised regarding copyright claims and open source licensing and IP violations, leading to class action lawsuits against GitHub, Microsoft, and OpenAI.
- Challenges and Competitors.
- Generative AI models have a tendency to introduce buggy or deprecated code snippets, leading to less secure code.
- Competition in the Industry.
- In addition to Amazon’s CodeWhisperer, Copilot competes against other startups and open source models, making it essential for GitHub to continuously upgrade and improve its offerings to maintain its leading position in the market.
Earlier this year, GitHub unveiled Copilot Chat, a programming-centric chatbot for organizations subscribed to GitHub Copilot. Now, the feature is available to individual customers as well. Copilot Chat is now in general availability and accessible in the sidebar in Microsoft’s IDEs, Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio.
General Availability
As of today, Copilot Chat is included as a part of GitHub Copilot paid tiers and free for verified teachers, students, and maintainers of certain open source projects.
“As home to the world’s developers, we’ve brought to market what is now the most widely adopted AI developer tool in history,” said Shuyin Zhao, VP of product management at GitHub, in an email interview with TechCrunch.
Lack of Changes Since Beta
Not much has changed since the beta. The chatbot is still powered by GPT-4, OpenAI’s flagship generative AI model, fine-tuned for dev scenarios. Developers can prompt Copilot Chat in natural language to get real-time guidance.
Concerns and Lawsuits
However, concerns have been raised regarding copyright claims and open source licensing and IP violations, leading to class action lawsuits against GitHub, Microsoft, and OpenAI. Codebase owners do not currently have a mechanism to opt out of training, and GitHub’s suggestion to make repositories private as a solution does not seem to sit well with many.
Challenges and Competitors
Generative AI models have a tendency to introduce buggy or deprecated code snippets, leading to less secure code. GPT-4 performs “better” in comparison to older models but still requires close human review. With Amazon’s CodeWhisperer stepping up as a strong competitor and offering enhanced suggestions, GitHub faces the challenge of making Copilot profitable.
Competition in the Industry
In addition to Amazon’s CodeWhisperer, Copilot competes against other startups and open source models, making it essential for GitHub to continuously upgrade and improve its offerings to maintain its leading position in the market.
