Shouldn't Copilot technically be FOSS since it trains on open source?
GitHub Copilot is generally available
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Re: GitHub Copilot is generally available
#22Does Copilot already display the licenses of the code it might insert/suggest, or assure the developer, that the inserted/suggested code is not a verbatim copy of existing code? How can developers be sure, that they are not violating licenses by using Copilot?
From my experience with it the suggestions are so generic it's hard to imagine anyone has a legit license to "formatDateISO....() {code here}". Maybe I'm using it wrong but I've hardly seen it pump out a mass volume of code.
Nope, have had the same experience as you and am of a similar opinion!
Re: GitHub Copilot is generally available
#23Does copilot learn from and suggest patterns in the same codebase that you're working, or does it just pull from the huge pool of projects on GH? How well does copilot help with languages like Elixir that are less common? WIth TypeScript it's been remarkable, but that's one of the most popular and surely very familiar to devs and GH, so I would expect less popular like Elixir to not perform as well. Does copilot work…
I've played with it a little bit:
Copilot did pretty poorly when I tried using it with Julia- it kept suggesting Python code. I suspect it would do something similar in Elixir.
I'm also a vim person who doesn't want to use VS code, but I've gotten more than enough value to get into my first IDE (with vim keybindings). A lot of tedious C++ code is getting correctly auto-generated.
Re: GitHub Copilot is generally available
#24Does copilot learn from and suggest patterns in the same codebase that you're working, or does it just pull from the huge pool of projects on GH? How well does copilot help with languages like Elixir that are less common? WIth TypeScript it's been remarkable, but that's one of the most popular and surely very familiar to devs and GH, so I would expect less popular like Elixir to not perform as well. Does copilot work…
> suggest patterns in the same codebase that you're working Sometimes, with variable results. I think I've only observed it guess patterns from the current directory > Does copilot work for shell scripts? Yes, it gave me this earlier today while editing my .zshrc: # kill a process on a given port killport() { lsof -i :$1 | awk 'NR!=1 {print $2}' | xargs kill }
Can't wait for someone to integrate this into a shell. Does anyone know if such a project exists?
Re: GitHub Copilot is generally available
#25Does Copilot already display the licenses of the code it might insert/suggest, or assure the developer, that the inserted/suggested code is not a verbatim copy of existing code? How can developers be sure, that they are not violating licenses by using Copilot?
Previously discussed at length here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27773157
> or assure the developer, that the inserted/suggested code is not a verbatim copy of existing code
No, it does not do that.
> How can developers be sure, that they are not violating licenses by using Copilot
There are no clear answers.
Re: GitHub Copilot is generally available
#26Only $10 a month to rack up dozens of license violations? What a deal.
Re: GitHub Copilot is generally available
#27Does Copilot already display the licenses of the code it might insert/suggest, or assure the developer, that the inserted/suggested code is not a verbatim copy of existing code? How can developers be sure, that they are not violating licenses by using Copilot?
My sincere question is what if a developer looks at some GPL code, and then that developer encounters a situation in a corporate project where-in he uses the GPL code from memory, is that already a violation? So to avoid a violation a developer needs to perform a mind-wipe?
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Re: GitHub Copilot is generally available
#28I tried GHCP but found it overall unhelpful and kind of stressful to use, because of potential bugs I might overlook and "import" into my project.
Definitely does not seem worth paying for me to end up more stressed out, haha.
Re: GitHub Copilot is generally available
#29Does Copilot already display the licenses of the code it might insert/suggest, or assure the developer, that the inserted/suggested code is not a verbatim copy of existing code? How can developers be sure, that they are not violating licenses by using Copilot?
My sincere question is what if a developer looks at some GPL code, and then that developer encounters a situation in a corporate project where-in he uses the GPL code from memory, is that already a violation? So to avoid a violation a developer needs to perform a mind-wipe?
I’d be even more curious (more philosophically than anything) as to who is liable for the mishap if Copilot suggests something that ends up violating a license. Is it the developer? The developer’s company? GitHub? Maybe the “AI” is the ultimate scapegoat (“we can’t be liable for what our helpful robot decides to do”)!
Re: GitHub Copilot is generally available
#30Does copilot learn from and suggest patterns in the same codebase that you're working, or does it just pull from the huge pool of projects on GH? How well does copilot help with languages like Elixir that are less common? WIth TypeScript it's been remarkable, but that's one of the most popular and surely very familiar to devs and GH, so I would expect less popular like Elixir to not perform as well. Does copilot work…
> suggest patterns in the same codebase that you're working Sometimes, with variable results. I think I've only observed it guess patterns from the current directory > Does copilot work for shell scripts? Yes, it gave me this earlier today while editing my .zshrc: # kill a process on a given port killport() { lsof -i :$1 | awk 'NR!=1 {print $2}' | xargs kill }
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