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GitHub Copilot

copilot.github.com

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Re: GitHub Copilot

#261

Post by adkadskhj »

layla5alive wrote: post #181
crazygringo wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you need to go through the suggested code to ensure it's correct, you may as well write it yourself? Not really. People are generally far faster at reading something and evaluating whether it's correct, than at writing something. In the same way it's faster to read a book than to write one. Not to mention the time it takes typing, fixing typos, etc. So this could genuinely be a huge timesaver if it helpful enoug…

I completely disagree with you. Reading code for correctness is difficult and not something most people do well at all. Reading code and reading for correctness are not the same, and most developers can write code a lot faster than they can verify it.

I'd say it's more nuanced. Reading code properly _is_ writing code. Ie i have to work through the logic as if i'm writing it, which is effectively writing it in my head, before i know if that's what i believe to be optimal.

I can _just_ read the code of course, and understand what it does - but just reading isn't analyzing it to the degree you do when you review/write the code. In that level of analysis you're looking for edge cases, bugs, etc. Reasons you'd write it differently. Which i suspect is functionally similar, if not identical, to writing it.

Re: GitHub Copilot

#262

Post by gmaijoe »

fzaninotto wrote: post #40

I've been using the alpha for the past 2 weeks, and I'm blown away. Copilot guesses the exact code I want to write about one in ten times, and the rest of the time it suggests something rather good, or completely off. But when it guesses right, it feels like it's reading my mind. It's really like pair programming, even though I'm coding alone. I have a better understanding of my own code, and I tend to give better na…

do you have an invite? very interested to check it out

Re: GitHub Copilot

#263

Post by samtheprogram »

natfriedman wrote: post #206
stefanos82 wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of questions: - the generated code by AI belongs to me or GitHub? - under what license the generated code falls under? - if generated code becomes the reason for infringment, who gets the blame or legal action? - how can anyone prove the code was actually generated by Copilot and not the project owner? - if a project member does not agree with the usage of Copilot, what should we do as a team? - can Copilot copy…

You should read the FAQ at the bottom of the page; I think it answers all of your questions: https://copilot.github.com/#faqs

The most important question, whether you own the code, is sort of maybe vaguely answered under “How will GitHub Copilot get better over time?”

> You can use the code anywhere, but you do so at your own risk.

Something more explicit than this would be nice. Is there a specific license?

EDIT: also, there’s multiple sections to a FAQ, notice the drop down... under “Do I need to credit GitHub Copilot for helping me write code?”, the answer is also no.

Until a specific license (or explicit lack there-of) is provided, I can’t use this except to mess around.

Re: GitHub Copilot

#264

Post by netcraft »

natfriedman wrote: post #206
stefanos82 wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of questions: - the generated code by AI belongs to me or GitHub? - under what license the generated code falls under? - if generated code becomes the reason for infringment, who gets the blame or legal action? - how can anyone prove the code was actually generated by Copilot and not the project owner? - if a project member does not agree with the usage of Copilot, what should we do as a team? - can Copilot copy…

You should read the FAQ at the bottom of the page; I think it answers all of your questions: https://copilot.github.com/#faqs

I dont see the answer to a single one of their questions on that page - did you link to where you intended?

Edit: you have to click the things on the left, I didn't realize they were tabs.

Re: GitHub Copilot

#265

Post by dang »

natfriedman wrote: post #60

Hi HN, we've been building GitHub Copilot together with the incredibly talented team at OpenAI for the last year, and we're so excited to be able to show it off today. Hundreds of developers are using it every day internally, and the most common reaction has been the head exploding emoji. If the technical preview goes well, we'll plan to scale this up as a paid product at some point in the future.

Ok, we changed the URL to that from https://github.blog/2021-06-29-introducing-github-copilot-ai....

Re: GitHub Copilot

#266

Post by hobofan »

fzaninotto wrote: post #40

I've been using the alpha for the past 2 weeks, and I'm blown away. Copilot guesses the exact code I want to write about one in ten times, and the rest of the time it suggests something rather good, or completely off. But when it guesses right, it feels like it's reading my mind. It's really like pair programming, even though I'm coding alone. I have a better understanding of my own code, and I tend to give better na…

Have you used any intelligent code completion in the past? E.g. I'd really be interested how it compares to TabNine[0], which already gives pretty amazing single line suggestions (haven't tried their experimental multi-line suggestions yet).

[0]: https://www.tabnine.com

Re: GitHub Copilot

#267

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

From the FAQ:

https://copilot.github.com/#faqs

>> How does GitHub Copilot work?

>> OpenAI Codex was trained on publicly available source code and natural language, so it understands both programming and human languages.

I want to propose a new Bingo style game where you get points when AI researchers (or rather their marketing teams) throw around big words that nobody understands, like, er "understands" with abandon. But I can't be bothered.

An AI researcher called Drew McDermot warned against this kind of thing in a paper titled "AI meets natural stupidity":

http://www.cs.yorku.ca/~jarek/courses/ai/F11/naturalstupidit...

In 1976.

Why doesn't anybody ever learn from the mistakes of the past?

Re: GitHub Copilot

#268

Post by dragonwriter »

jonas_kgomo wrote: post #93
natfriedman wrote: post #60

Hi HN, we've been building GitHub Copilot together with the incredibly talented team at OpenAI for the last year, and we're so excited to be able to show it off today. Hundreds of developers are using it every day internally, and the most common reaction has been the head exploding emoji. If the technical preview goes well, we'll plan to scale this up as a paid product at some point in the future.

This is obviously controversial, since we are thinking about how this could displace a large portion of developers. How do you see Copilot being more augmentative than disruptive to the developer ecosystem? Also, how you see it different from regular code completion tools like tabnine.

> This is obviously controversial, since we are thinking about how this could displace a large portion of developers.

It... couldn't, in net.

Tools which improve developer productivity increase the number of developers hired and the number of tasks for which it is worthwhile to employ them and the market clearing price for development work.

See, for examples, the whole history of the computing industry as we’ve added more layers of automation between “conceptual design for software” and “bit patterns in hardware implementing that conceptual design as concrete software”.

It might displace or disadvantage some developers in specific (though I doubt a large portion) by shifting the relative value of particular subskills within the set used in development, I suppose.

Re: GitHub Copilot

#269

Post by _gy5c »

freedomben wrote: post #205
natfriedman wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We think that software development is entering its third wave of productivity change. The first was the creation of tools like compilers, debuggers, garbage collectors, and languages that made developers more productive. The second was open source where a global community of developers came together to build on each other's work. The third revolution will be the use of AI in coding. The problems we spend our days sol…

I'm super interested to read more about your theory/analysis. Have you written on it in a blog or anything?

There's a good amount of discussion on this topic in "The Mythical Man-Month". The entire book is discussing the factors that affect development timeframes and it specifically addresses whether AI can speed it up (albeit from 1975, 1986 and 1995 viewpoints, and comparing progress between those points.)

Re: GitHub Copilot

#270

Post by viccuad »

natfriedman wrote: post #206
stefanos82 wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of questions: - the generated code by AI belongs to me or GitHub? - under what license the generated code falls under? - if generated code becomes the reason for infringment, who gets the blame or legal action? - how can anyone prove the code was actually generated by Copilot and not the project owner? - if a project member does not agree with the usage of Copilot, what should we do as a team? - can Copilot copy…

You should read the FAQ at the bottom of the page; I think it answers all of your questions: https://copilot.github.com/#faqs

> You should read the FAQ at the bottom of the page; I think it answers all of your questions: https://copilot.github.com/#faqs

Read it all, and the questions still stand. Could you, or any on your team, point me on where the questions are answered?

In particular, the FAQ doesn't assure that the "training set from publicly available data" doesn't contain license or patent violations, nor if that code is considered tainted for a particular use.

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