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GitHub Copilot loses an average of $20 per user per month

thurrott.com

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Re: GitHub Copilot loses an average of $20 per user per month

#91

Post by _fat_santa »

hesdeadjim wrote: post #5

The moment I can train Copilot on my codebase and improve its predictions, I’d gladly pay more than $20. Even now, I find that I can’t live without it simply as a slightly more intelligent auto-complete.

I tried Copilot in the early days but stopped using it pretty quickly as it just wasn't that useful in an already established codebase. Often times I'm not writing completely new code but rather implementing a pattern that I've previously defined somewhere else. In this case Copilot just completely falls over because it doesn't know about that existing code. My other gripe is language specific but in VSCode it breaks Typescript hints, often times I'm writing something like `MyCustomObject.` and expect Typescript to help me autofill the field, this breaks with Copilot as it always tries to suggest some other code.

The second issue I could work around but combined with the fact that it doesn't have context of my current codebase, my impression was that it would be a fantastic tool for someone going to school for CS but practically useless in a professional codebase.

Re: GitHub Copilot loses an average of $20 per user per month

#92

Post by esalman »

hesdeadjim wrote: post #5

The moment I can train Copilot on my codebase and improve its predictions, I’d gladly pay more than $20. Even now, I find that I can’t live without it simply as a slightly more intelligent auto-complete.

It's amazing and all, but can be so subtly wrong. I let it autocomplete a function for generating time zone offset. It sneaked a minus sign in there so central US offset would be +0600 instead of -0600. My manager caught it during code review. We both are proponents of copilot but it was still embarrassing for me.

Re: GitHub Copilot loses an average of $20 per user per month

#94

Post by mfitton »

cabirum wrote: post #54
jasonlotito wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How came that usually privacy-minded hn crowd HN has never been a privacy-minded crowd. It's been a collection of random people, and depending on the threads of topic, you'll get more people speaking out than others. See the Dropbox post from 2007. Nary a privacy concern. HN isn't a single voice. Why do you think it's a privacy-minded crowd? Because you probably react and respond to similar posts, and you see peopl…

My own code is on my own gitea instance in my home, exposed via a cheap jump server. My companys code is stored on-premise. Nothing touches github and no, ms does not already have my code.

I'd say your set-up is probably more rare than people whose own code and whose company code are both stored on Github.

Re: GitHub Copilot loses an average of $20 per user per month

#95

Post by marcosdumay »

bhouston wrote: post #33

Thus, the price of Github Copilot is going to go up, 2x to 5x. For all of the criticism of Github Copilot, for a lot of developers (but not all), the value Github Copilot is incredibly high, much more than $20/month. The current rock bottom pricing is low compared to the value provided for those users. As such there is a big opportunity to multiply the price here being charged. Probably an increase between 3x to 5x.…

> for a lot of developers (but not all), the value Github Copilot is incredibly high, much more than $20/month.

I really doubt this.

IMO, the jury is still out deciding if the value is above zero for enough people to matter.

Re: GitHub Copilot loses an average of $20 per user per month

#96

Post by ilc »

cabirum wrote: post #25
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure it's the same people? That said, even if it is, there's something to be said for intentionally sharing a constrained set of code vs using something that spies on you in real life.

Could be different sets of people actually! However. It will eventually, chunk by chunk, upload the full source code of the app you are writing. Complete with all typos and mis-pastes. Like youtube blocks videos with just a hint of copyrighted music, they may be able to detect use of "patented" algos or something like that and block you/ send a lawyer/etc.

Intellectual property scanning using AI would be a service that they could charge for... For both sides.

Re: GitHub Copilot loses an average of $20 per user per month

#97

Post by onionisafruit »

TheRoque wrote: post #34
tedivm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Copilot is chat gpt4, and has been since roughly April. It's built on top of it.

Wow, I didn't know there, I must have missed the news. I swear I have seen everywhere that it was using this "Codex" model

I think codex is what early versions of copilot used.

Re: GitHub Copilot loses an average of $20 per user per month

#98

Post by simonw »

marcosdumay wrote: post #95
bhouston wrote: post #33

Thus, the price of Github Copilot is going to go up, 2x to 5x. For all of the criticism of Github Copilot, for a lot of developers (but not all), the value Github Copilot is incredibly high, much more than $20/month. The current rock bottom pricing is low compared to the value provided for those users. As such there is a big opportunity to multiply the price here being charged. Probably an increase between 3x to 5x.…

> for a lot of developers (but not all), the value Github Copilot is incredibly high, much more than $20/month. I really doubt this. IMO, the jury is still out deciding if the value is above zero for enough people to matter.

From that article: 1.5m users and up to 50% of their code is now being produced by Copilot.

Sounds to me like the verdict on its value is in already.

Re: GitHub Copilot loses an average of $20 per user per month

#99

Post by monocasa »

Doesn't copilot slurp up oodles of the code in your workspace for non corporate accounts? Is that data acquisition maybe worth the cost to Microsoft?

I know they have github, but tiny scripting glue tasks like copilot excels at aren't the best represented on GitHub.

Re: GitHub Copilot loses an average of $20 per user per month

#100

Post by stephendause »

_fat_santa wrote: post #91
hesdeadjim wrote: post #5

The moment I can train Copilot on my codebase and improve its predictions, I’d gladly pay more than $20. Even now, I find that I can’t live without it simply as a slightly more intelligent auto-complete.

I tried Copilot in the early days but stopped using it pretty quickly as it just wasn't that useful in an already established codebase. Often times I'm not writing completely new code but rather implementing a pattern that I've previously defined somewhere else. In this case Copilot just completely falls over because it doesn't know about that existing code. My other gripe is language specific but in VSCode it breaks…

It's very interesting to me that you say that because it hasn't been my experience. I am working in a ~20k-50k SLOC codebase with a few common patterns, and it seems to have picked up on most of them. It's not always right, but even when it isn't, I can write a comment above an empty line to nudge it in the right direction.
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