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GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

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Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#31

Post by threatofrain »

aresant wrote: post #13

“Copilot puts the human at the center of the creative work that is software development. AI helps with the things you don’t want to do, so you have more time for the things you do.” … until we train our model on your usage data and totally replace you

If we actually could get to a world where programmers can be replaced, we'll also likely find that vast swathes of the population will be replaced. Then we'll need a totally new conversation on how society should look. That conversation is coming no matter what, because there will not be a global consensus to stop ML development, esp. on the war front.

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#33

Post by shaneofalltrad »

aresant wrote: post #13

“Copilot puts the human at the center of the creative work that is software development. AI helps with the things you don’t want to do, so you have more time for the things you do.” … until we train our model on your usage data and totally replace you

If they don't, it will be Cursor, Trae, Cline, Roo Code or Goose? Seems this is coming this year in a big way regardless if Copilot does it or not. I'm guessing we all have to pivot how we work or get left behind?

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#34

Post by shaneofalltrad »

jgilias wrote: post #8
dabinat wrote: post #5

I use Copilot and it’s a game-changer for my productivity, but I really wish it was capable of natural language searching. So for example I could ask it “show me all places in the code where x is assigned a value but a flush() command is not immediately issued afterwards”.

I think Cursor can do this, if you @codebase, isn’t there something similar in copilot? E.g., your codebase being vectorized, indexed, and used as an embedding?

I have had Cursor review all my file content solving similar things, but I would think it's limited to VSCode search capabilities and IMHO it's not great. I love how Pycharm handles indexing so search is fast and accurate. If they ever get agents going at the same quality as Cursor I would probably go to Pycharm for that advantage alone.

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#35

Post by rvz »

aresant wrote: post #13

“Copilot puts the human at the center of the creative work that is software development. AI helps with the things you don’t want to do, so you have more time for the things you do.” … until we train our model on your usage data and totally replace you

They are not hiding it anymore and are testing as to how much they can get away with total job displacement. First artists, then musicians, then writers and now programmers.

Better prepare for 2030 then as I am already doing so [0].

But from this year and in the next 5 years I'd also read this very carefully [1].

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42563239

[1] https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-repo...

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#36

Post by johnfn »

threatofrain wrote: post #31
aresant wrote: post #13

“Copilot puts the human at the center of the creative work that is software development. AI helps with the things you don’t want to do, so you have more time for the things you do.” … until we train our model on your usage data and totally replace you

If we actually could get to a world where programmers can be replaced, we'll also likely find that vast swathes of the population will be replaced. Then we'll need a totally new conversation on how society should look. That conversation is coming no matter what, because there will not be a global consensus to stop ML development, esp. on the war front.

In a world where programmers can be replaced, it's less clear to me that plumbers, janitors, electricians, construction laborers, etc, are also all out of a job.

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#37

Post by twistedgost »

lolinder wrote: post #3

They'd better get on the IntelliJ integration fast— if I'm going to switch editors in order to use an LLM coding assistant, I may as well just switch to Cursor, which has a strong head start on them on the assistant and also has a much better autocomplete. I'm honestly surprised to see no mention here of them moving to replicate Cursor's autocomplete—IMO that is where Cursor's real edge lies. Anyone can wrap a chatbo…

The feature you are referring to was also announced in VSCode and is called Next edit suggestions for Copilot. Currently in preview: https://github.blog/changelog/2025-02-06-next-edit-suggestio...

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#38

Post by diggan »

> When we introduced GitHub Copilot back in 2021, we had a clear goal: to make developers’ lives easier with an AI pair programmer that helps them write better code. The name reflects our belief that artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t replacing the developer.

Later:

> GitHub Copilot’s new agent mode is capable of iterating on its own code, recognizing errors, and fixing them automatically.

Is this Microsoft/GitHub acknowledging they initially missed the mark, except they aren't really clear in the post that they're abandoning the approach of "AI pair programmer / not replacing the developer"? Seems really strange to re-iterate their "clear goal" and then in the next paragraph go directly against their goal? Are they maybe afraid of a potential backslash if it became more clear that they're now looking to replace (some) developers / the boring parts of development?

I have no opinions either way, but the messaging of the post seems to go into all different directions, which seems strange.

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#39

Post by hirako2000 »

aresant wrote: post #13

“Copilot puts the human at the center of the creative work that is software development. AI helps with the things you don’t want to do, so you have more time for the things you do.” … until we train our model on your usage data and totally replace you

More time for the things I do?

All AI tools I've used turned my daily into fighting the agent.

While LLMs can save time on tedious repetitive tasks, they are atrocities in producing bug free code. Even if they reached 99.999% accuracy without, they wouldn't be worth it: If I wrote a function and it turns out buggy, I can, even months later, investigate and find the culprit.

If an LLM introduces a bug, I would rather scrap everything. That is, every piece of code the thing produced for a given project.

If my boss tells me my job is to provide a patch, I quit.

And, LLMs have proven so far that they can't produce innovative solutions.

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#40

Post by diggan »

cruffle_duffle wrote: post #23
lolinder wrote: post #3

They'd better get on the IntelliJ integration fast— if I'm going to switch editors in order to use an LLM coding assistant, I may as well just switch to Cursor, which has a strong head start on them on the assistant and also has a much better autocomplete. I'm honestly surprised to see no mention here of them moving to replicate Cursor's autocomplete—IMO that is where Cursor's real edge lies. Anyone can wrap a chatbo…

I wish cursor was an extension of VSCode and not a fork.

Does is matter in practice? Is there stuff you can do in VSCode that isn't possible in Cursor? I'm not a user of either, so honest question.
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