GitHub Copilot: smart development.

Microsoft Build 2022: GitHub Copilot, an AI tool that suggests features and completes code autonomously making it much easier for developers, but was only in test mode so far.

Microsoft Build is Microsoft's flagship event for developers. Here, year after year, new products and features are announced that aim to increase productivity and the use of new technologies that help developers make a difference in their products.

In this opportunity, most of the innovations are based on the impact that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted development have in the industry, new patterns of hybrid AI applications for new devices and tools that take advantage of AI to automation.

After making reference to the current world situation, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, kicked off the two-day conference for Microsoft developers, the Microsoft Build, which is still being held virtually.

The opening talk focused on 10 technologies, including, of course, the metaverse, with examples of its Microsoft Mesh virtual environment and the "Minecraft" video game, as well as web3 development. Reference was also made to the efforts that Microsoft is making so that the cloud becomes the "PC of the world" in the words of Nadella, that is, to dispense with hardware and that all processes and applications are executed through a "remote computer ".

GitHub Copilot

One of the highlights of the event was GitHub Copilot, an AI tool that suggests functions and completes code autonomously, making the work of developers much easier, but which was only in test mode so far. A technical preview of the product was first introduced last year, and the reception has been overwhelmingly positive.

Now, with the general availability of Copilot, more developers will have the opportunity to use these tools, which not only help them write code using AI, but also use it to understand that code and code better in the future. GitHub Copilot is powered by OpenAI Codex. A new artificial intelligence system created by OpenAI.

OpenAI Codex has been prepared in source codes and natural languages. Therefore, it understands both programming and human language. The GitHub Copilot editor extension uses OpenAI Codex to synthesize and suggest individual lines and entire functions.

AI on GitHub Copilot

Artificial intelligence has advanced a lot in recent years. More and more sectors are using AI to improve, and programming and development are not far behind. GitHub Copilot is an AI function that has learned through several million lines of code and recognizes what you are planning based on a function definition and so on.

According to GitHub, it is "significantly more capable than generating GPT-3 in code generation." Because it has been trained on a dataset that includes more public source code, OpenAI Codex should be more familiar with how developers write code and be able to submit more accurate designs.

Machines can program as this system that feeds on GPT-3 has shown. A new OpenAI language model used for deep learning to produce texts that simulate human writing. However, in Github Copilot they have gone a little further and have made it capable of generating source code completely autonomously, thus helping developers to save time and be more efficient.

Although Copilot cannot develop complete applications on its own. It is an important advance to facilitate a more efficient work. It is also a first approach to a future scenario where it is increasingly likely that new technologies will continue doing the activity of programmers.

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