First Look at GitHub Copilot and What It Means For Developers

What is GitHub Copilot and what does it mean for developers? Will AI be replacing developer jobs? What are the upsides and downsides of this project? What should I know about GitHub Copilot? These are the questions we will tackle in this episode of Dev Questions.
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[@Greatfulone]

Thank you so much. It was informative, and educational.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad it was helpful!

[@gompassos]

Hi! Thanks for the high quality content. I notice that the audio is not as good as it used to be. Did you switched audio capture devices? Anyway, great episode!

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

I noticed that also and I know Tim is aware. His system crashed very recently and he is still recovering.

[@hivezphone]

I've noticed the problem also. My thought was that something is wrong with my phone speaker.

[@haihai2999]

Thanks Tim.

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Thanks for watching

[@tchpowdog]

Hi Tim. I was wondering if you know of another MVP that specializes in security/encryption. Perhaps someone who creates their own videos/lectures/blogs/books? I'm trying to learn more about data encryption, how to use digital signatures, etc. Thanks! Also, is there a better way to send you a message instead of commenting on a random video? lol

[@bmp713]

What are the most popular software options for people with RSI to write code, mouse and control Windows with Voice alone?

[@kazeemquadri01]

Thank you Tim, just a funny suggestion I think your edge browser wants to get updated 😁

[@IAmTimCorey]

I wait until after I record to do updates. It is all good now.

[@annb1855]

How is it different from the new IntelliCode autocompletion in VS2022?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Intellicode is basically auto-complete of known patterns. CoPilot actually writes code for you. Think of it like the big brother to Intellicode.

[@ronaldschutte7948]

I just hope it would be good at doing CSS. That would be great for C# developers moving to Blazor because they never dove too deep into web development.

[@e.h.5680]

@limelight81 It's no secret that front-end development is generally speaking not as robust as back-end development. CSS and HTML are kind of behind, for example when compared to XAML. And I won't be going into JavaScript, and just hope for Blazor to make JS obsolete.

[@IAmTimCorey]

@E.H. - I would say that CSS3 has erased most of those issues. The biggest issue on the web used to be vertical centering. Now we have multiple ways of solving that issue (grid and flex being the two most common). Yes, web layouts used to be hard. Now they are simpler than XAML layouts.

[@e.h.5680]

@@IAmTimCorey IMO there is still a lot of guesswork involved in CSS, fiddling with properties and styles to achieve the desired layouts that simply didn't exist within XAML. A lot of times you change styles that are supposed to do behave in a certain way for example, without them having any obvious effect. I don't remember encountering something like this with XAML. Where XAML was difficult in general for me, was the whole convoluted DependencyProperty and nightmarish bindings of properties that Blazor showed how easily could have been avoided.

[@ronaldschutte7948]

@@IAmTimCorey Sure. For the standard application layouts. I was more thinking about doing more complicated things like data visualization. A lot of features, like transform, now provided by CSS3 used to be only possible with js. I love how easy it is to interact through inline CSS with C# variables.

[@ronaldschutte7948]

@limelight81 Blazor is among other things about less context switching. Being able to focus on business logic without having to think about javascript is it's main advantage. Copilot would only add to this if is good at css. It's not about laziness, it's about speed through less context switching.

[@refactorear]

I'm quite interested in how they'll handle patents. It could be possible that some projects that had been harvested had used patented algorithms unbeknownst to the holder, and if that's the case and you had used one of such suggestions, would they remember that you had used it and warn you to change it?

[@IAmTimCorey]

The work done by Copilot is derivative, meaning it is customized to you not just a copy/paste system. Under current law, that type of system is not protected under the rights the original source was listed under. Therefore, it will not cause any legal issues to use the system in your code.

[@PerryCodes]

The robots are coming for our jeeeorbs!

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Look! Godzilla - RUN!

[@Soranima]

DeyTukUrJerbs

[@namelastname4077]

i hope so.. in the future the best paid people are those that can work with their avatar to take the most jobs from others

[@defenestratedalien1448]

In the very far future, we will not need to spend the bulk of our life working. We just live while AI does the work happily. I know, an utopian fantasy.

[@michaelnurse9089]

I think the important thing to say here is that programmers don't get paid to 'write code'. They get paid to solve business problems/user needs using code. To do that requires many faculties of intelligence - including zero-data prediction/empathy/meaning discernment/persuasion/off-map-creativity/understanding world state and many other things that neural nets simply cannot do. This is 80% of the programmer's job. But be warned - when it comes to doing what neural nets do best - pattern recognition in complex systems or large bodies of data - they have and will continue to beat humans hands down.

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Well said!

[@swordblaster2596]

Evaluating the ML-enhanced intellisense completion in VS 2022 preview over the weekend, I found it reasonably good, as a keystroke saving tool. But it occasionally offered garbage. I'm nervous at the thought of junior programmers injecting all these "suggestions" into a code base, that might even compile correctly, without understanding what's going on. It's going to happen.

[@IAmTimCorey]

That's true with all programming tools. Every positive thing has a way it can be abused.

[@SuperToughnut]

I would love for machine learning to write unit tests!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Me too!

[@Corbald]

While I agree with nearly everything you're saying, it's all from the point of view of a seasoned coder. I, however, am _not_ a professional programmer! My skillset includes some basic programming capabilities, and my career often demands that I write bits of functional code and small programs. Copilot represents a game changing new tool for my Maker's toolbox, but my code doesn't have human lives or safety hinging on it working, so it's going to be a HUGE time saver for me, going forward. I think that for those at around my skill level, who can decipher code they find on the internet, this tool might speed up the learning process drastically. I agree that nobody in charge of actual important stuff should be leaning too heavily on it, but then shouldn't someone who doesn't understand the code not be in that position to begin with?

[@Corbald]

It occurs to me that the 'ideal' version of Copilot _should_ be able to write code the user doesn't understand. That means we've achieved full offloading of a skill. Integration of something like a future Copilot with something like Neuralink could make programming a default human capability.

[@IAmTimCorey]

The problem with not understanding the code it writes is two-fold. First, that code will not always be complete. That means it won't work out of the box. So, you need to fix it or it will make your life miserable. Second, if the code does work and you don't understand it, when it breaks you won't know how to fix it. Like I said in the video, if you don't understand it at first but take the time to figure out why it is doing what it is doing, that's great. Just don't cut corners and implement it without understanding it. That leads to major issues down the road.

[@wilfred5656]

So, copilot will answer coding interview questions? Or there will be no need for coding interviews since copilot will have replaced developers.

[@IAmTimCorey]

It can do interview-like technical work, although I would be fine with that in an interview. I think it would show just as much as if you were doing it yourself. If Copilot built out all of the code but you had no clue why it worked, you wouldn't get the job. If it built it all out and you knew what it did and why it did it and could even talk about the decisions it made, you would get the job. We can't pretend that Stack Overflow doesn't exist. Developers are always going to copy/paste code that they need (there would be a problem if they weren't doing so). The issue is how well they understand what they are doing.

[@azgan123]

So basically co-pilot will help me reach high-level programming habits faster? So cool!

[@IAmTimCorey]

That's the goal.

[@0M9H4X_Neckbeard]

Great video, one thing though is that the audio sounds *weird*. You sound cut off to an extent, as if you have a limit or filter on your microphone that is a bit excessive or perhaps your recording room has excessive echo dampening. Most likely it's a post-processing filter though, I understand you fine but it just sounds unnatural and when you end a sentence on a quieter syllable it often sounds cut off as if the filter kicks in and shuts you up a few milliseconds too soon you know?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Yep, I tracked down the issue. I had to format my computer and while I saved all of my settings, evidently the GoXLR board does not back up ALL of the settings when you do a backup. So, the noise gate was back to default, which was WAY too high. I removed it entirely (I haven't found it valuable for my setup) and I think we are set now.

[@MrBenderrrr]

As someone who is better with sound than code, i would tell you that it seems you are using a sound gate and that either the release time is set too high or the value of the gate is set too low. Anyway very interesting and high quality video as always!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks for the tip. I just had to format my computer so I'm recovering the settings. I thought I had a full backup of my mixer but it appears that I did not so I am manually recreating the settings.

[@dogburrito]

Fascinating topic, AI and ML. Developers turned AI engineers disagree, some say Devs will be out of a job, others say AI/ML will just create dev jobs. As a Dev, I say that one may ignore AI/ML at our peril. Seems clear that AI/ML is here to stay and will continue to expand and the distribution channels to bring it to market and to consumers. Won't this hinge on development of software (and a new explosion of dev jobs) to integrate AI/ML into systems, old and new to expose AI/ML APIs to the world? Then there is the use of AI/ML in development which is currently very limited to that of "Intelligence on steroids" (copilot) and Chat GPT research (a clear productivity enhancer). However these seem limited to a slide of the SDLC - that of coding and creating test code. That's a mere fraction of the SDLC, at present. One thing is clear for developers - ignore AI/ML at your peril. There may be an AI service or subsystem that will enhance your system. Your productivity will depend on us of the best tools and copilot/Chat GPT may be only the first to emerge. Then there are the waves of AI/ML related jobs to sweep across the world over the next decade as AI/ML gain momentum.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I definitely think we need to embrace it and use it. And yes, it will increase the amount of places that need to do software development to integrate AIs more deeply into their systems (the top layer is easy, but that isn't going to be enough). I do think that people over-estimate the skills of AI. That's where the big disconnect is.

[@naftoliost4534]

So until it's available on visual studio I'll just have to use VS code. Microsoft is encouraging me to move over from Windows to mac / Linux! What a great time we live in! ;) ;)

[@michaelnurse9089]

You can't paddle two boats - Microsoft should rebuild VS into VSC.

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Funny perspective!

[@chigboevans6851]

@iamtimcorey has basically clearified a lot. GitHub c-pilot won’t think for you!!!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Correct.

[@kasimsche2812]

Finally....... 🤩🤩🤩

[@IAmTimCorey]

It has only been out for a few days.

[@kasimsche2812]

@@IAmTimCorey hello sir! Can we get documentation of .net core mostly used APIs from your side any PDF or video like.... for beginners it will help a lot.

[@marcusmaunula5018]

Going by what Evan You wrote it basically scrapes other peoples code without asking them, here I joked about scraping Stackoverflow. Seems they were ahead of me. Anyway, unauthorized use of anyone elses code is never ok in my book. (if they are private repos at least).

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

I'm sure the lawyers have reviewed it and plenty others will challenge it.

[@miigashish]

Is there an alternative of Tim Corey for Java, Tim is simply fantastic. I work on both Java and C# and I would like to improve my skills in Java as well

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Tim has not ventured into Java.

[@miigashish]

@@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597 Yes Yes I meant suggetions for some other KZbinr who provides similar content for Java

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

@@miigashish At this time, Tim has not endorsed any Java teachers. If he does, I am sure he will do a Blog post on it.

[@muscleheadzzzz]

I feel like AI is pretty much synonymous with machine learning, since machine learning is a subset of AI.

Nowadays artificial intelligence is the multidimensional and sometimes discrete valued equivalent of an Excel trendline.

[@DanMalm71X]

What about AGI, would that eliminate the need for developers?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Eventually, yes, but after it replaces almost every other job in the world. Software development would be one of the last bastions of human workers if AGI ever becomes a real thing. The likelihood of that happening is almost zero, though. AGI would absolutely crush our society as we know it. At that point, you could not plan for anything.

[@jhbonarius]

The example code is already (potentially) wrong. There's no guarantee the input is url encoded, yet the header is set that way. Edit: over the past years I, like many of developers, have been maintaining long running giant monoliths, of which the original developers have long gone. Thus, I (we commonly) don't know what most of the code does. 😅 Edit 2: and what about the issue that it's a (future) commercial product that was trained on GPL code? Is it "fair use" as Microsoft claims? Or just illegal?

[@jhbonarius]

@limelight81 no, you are missing the point. Open source code can have licenses, which could for instance imply that a copy or derivative of it cannot be used in closed source projects. And the license should always be included. Thus, if copilot regenerates that gpl licensed code without that context or license, it's doing something that can be considered illegal.

[@IAmTimCorey]

The issue with not knowing what the code does because the original developers are gone is a big one. It creates a brittle system that everyone is afraid to touch. That's a common issue, but also one that needs to be addressed over time. As for the fair use of the trained model, it is in line with current law on the matter (public code can be used to train models). However, the world is always changing so there will definitely be adjustments that need to be made in the future. However, Microsoft will be the one to make these changes. Remember, though, that Copilot (and similar projects like Intellicode) do not just copy code from others. They learn the patterns and then use those patterns to create new code that fits your situation. That is a transformational work. That is not the same as the original, so the licensing does not apply.

[@mtbjason4]

Is this any different than Kite?

[@bluesquirrel3257]

Thanks for introducing me to Kite. I'm going to give it a go while I wait copilot access.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Yes. Kite is more like Intellisense is in Visual Studio. Copilot doesn't just do code completion, it does full code suggestion (sections of code, not just lines).

[@PerryCodes]

Tabnine is another one similar to Kite.

[@felvinperez957]

As a developer I believed that it will be a useful tool for us, not replace us as we are still the pilot who make a decision and design the overall output. Im not threaten.. 😁

[@IAmTimCorey]

I agree.

[@michaelnurse9089]

A cautionary tale -The Wright brothers achieve flight. Everyone for 50 years: Railroads are better, safer, cheaper. -Bill Gates writes his operating system for a personal computer. Everyone for 25 years: I prefer to communicate via telephone thanks. -Elon Musk creates the Roadster. Everyone for 10 years: The electric vehicle is not cost effective enough to ever be more than a party trick.

[@Raziel369]

What does this have to do with CoPilot ?

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Are you implying that in 5 yrs Copilot type tools take over code management?

[@wayahedia9989]

I've seen code helpers like this since I started programming. They have never fulfilled their promise.

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Hopefully it brings some value to developers that get stuck.

[@DavidSmith-ef4eh]

It might replace developers in a sense that one developer becomes more productive, and you can let go of some of them...

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

That is one of the most reasonable statements on this I have heard.

[@PerryCodes]

Seriously though... It's going to be a long time before software developers will no longer be needed. Even then, it will just be a different job description.

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

I agree, like all jobs, it is always evolving.

[@ganeshkumbhar7774]

Looks like, In some days we programs will be just code reviewers... Copilot will write test cases and code that can satisfy those tests 😇

[@IAmTimCorey]

Not for a long time.

[@TurntableTV]

I think this is more of a productivity tool than a replacer for a human beings.

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Perfect summary description, I think..

[@starllama2149]

Basically anyone who just does basic web dev is screwed. If you do literally anything else actually complex, you're fine.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Nah. No one is screwed here. This is just another tool to make us all better at our jobs.

[@David-rz4vc]

Looks like grammarly for developers.

[@IAmTimCorey]

That’s a great analogy.

[@KevinKHMok]

It's more than that though. Grammarly for developers is like linters. This is like telling an AI what you want the paragraph to be about, and then it'll generate that for you.

[@EngineeringVignettes]

So it's Clippy telling me how to code properly... Great. :/ ---

[@IAmTimCorey]

That would be a great UI add-on to Copilot. I would pay for it. "It looks like you are writing a CRUD operation..."

[@FISS007]

There are self driving cars, we still need drivers

[@michaelnurse9089]

You cannot buy one yet. Tesla is closed beta and Waymo is ridesharing only. Saying this is like saying horses are used far more than cars in 1900 - a true statement - but with complete disregard for the proverbial train coming down the tunnel.

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Until they don't.

[@SuperToughnut]

Alexa, begin a for loop. Alexa! Begin a for loop! ALEXA!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Alexa is proof that we are a LONG way away from machines doing anything on their own.

[@frankhaugen]

No actual demo 😭

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

There are several 'demo' snippets right on the home page.

[@bobweiram6321]

It was only a matter of time before Microsoft finally reveals why they paid an astounding sum of $7B for a free open access repository system running a crappy version control system. They've been mining it to gain strategic advantages over their competition.

[@PerryCodes]

The genius of that is the Terms of Service that gives them total ability to do so every time someone uploads their code to GitHub.

[@michaelnurse9089]

No. Anyone can mine the open repos for free. No need to pay money for that.

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Wait, when did GitHub restrict user to ONLY open repositories? I thought there were vast amounts of "restricted access" repositories on it.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Microsoft has the same access to the repositories as Apple or Google has - open source is ... open. They cannot scan the closed-source projects (according to their own terms) so this "strategic advantage" you mention does not exist. As for git being "crappy", you do realize that the market has spoken and git is the version control of choice for the world, right? There are many strategic reasons why Microsoft chose to buy GitHub, but the biggest one was profit. They saw a wildly-popular system that was growing and could become an even bigger deal.

[@PerryCodes]

@@IAmTimCorey Thanks for pointing that out Tim. For some reason I thought that the ToS granted MS rights to scan all repos, both public and private, but as you point out that's incorrect.

[@bobweiram6321]

You owe me a big apology. It turns out Microsoft is facing copyright lawsuits over Copilot. They've been using legally protected code to train Copilot under their terms of use, which supersedes any readme licenses. www.fsf.org/licensing/copilot/copyright-implications-of-the-use-of-code-repositories-to-train-a-machine-learning-model

[@IAmTimCorey]

I found this in spam because of the link. Normally, I would ignore it but I wanted to address this issue. No, I don't owe you an apology. In fact, this article is saying exactly what I said so let's talk about it. First, anyone can sue anyone for anything. A lawsuit is not a proof of guilt. For instance, a man sued Starbucks for adding ice to iced drinks. Another man sued candy manufacturers for including too much air in the boxes or bags of candy. The judgement from a concluded lawsuit is a statement of guilt or innocence. Even then, it has to go through appeals before it is finally settled. So, we won't see the conclusion to these types of lawsuits for years to come. Second, I'm going to include some direct quotes from that article that you linked. You tell me what you think is being communicated about the validity of the lawsuit: "GitHub’s use of the code repositories to train its machine learning model is likely fair use" "Although GitHub’s purpose in developing Copilot is presumably commercial, a court would likely find that the transformativeness of the use outweighs the commercial purpose and that this factor weighs in favor of fair use." "Since GitHub’s purpose in copying the deposited code is not to sort lists, etc., but rather to enable developers to create new programs more easily, a court might find that this factor supports a finding of fair use." "...and conclude that this factor supports fair use." "In this situation the copying would perforce amount to copying of ideas rather expression, and would not be infringing." "To be clear, the analysis presented above does not absolve GitHub of wrongdoing, but rather argues that Copilot and its developer-customers likely do not infringe developers’ copyrights." Here's the bottom line: if you argue too strongly that GitHub CoPilot is violating fair use, then you have to argue that you too are violating fair use if you ever read publicly available code. You learn from it, you use parts of it, and you benefit from it (get money for it from your employer for using it). So what is different between you and CoPilot? It has learned from public code and is using that knowledge to enrich its owner. You have learned from public code and are using that to enrich yourself.

[@mattizzle81]

A real programmer writes machine code in a Hex editor 😂

[@IAmTimCorey]

Rats. I guess I'm not a real developer. I've never had to write code in a hex editor. 😆

[@jacoumata]

Developers getting developers replaced by ai, lol jk

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

but that is the only way it can happen, when you think about it.

[@shevafire]

What is this accent.

[@IAmTimCorey]

American

[@shevafire]

@@IAmTimCorey 😀 From witch state ?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Pennsylvania originally but now Texas.

[@shevafire]

Ok, I'm born in Yugoslavia country who doesn't exist (actual Serbia). I'm living in south of France before 27 years. My accent is south of France accent