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GitHub Copilot

copilot.github.com

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Re: GitHub Copilot

#831

Post by Jeff_Brown »

billti wrote: post #688
iandanforth wrote: post #619

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the licensing for code generated in this way? GPT-3 has memorized hundreds of texts verbatim and can be prompted to regurgitate that text. Has this model only been trained on code that doesn't require attribution as part of the license?

The landing page for it states the below, so hopefully not too much of an issue (though I guess some folks may find a 0.1% risk high). > GitHub Copilot is a code synthesizer, not a search engine: the vast majority of the code that it suggests is uniquely generated and has never been seen before. We found that about 0.1% of the time, the suggestion may contain some snippets that are verbatim from the training set.

Automatic refactoring could be useful for avoiding a lot of dumb legal disputes.

I say dumb because I am, perhaps chauvinistically, assuming that no brilliant algorithmic insights will be transferred via the AI copilot, only work that might have been conceptually hard to a beginner but feels routine to a day laborer.

Then again that assumption suggests there'd be nothing to sue over.

Re: GitHub Copilot

#833

Post by aprinsen »

varispeed wrote: post #745
feross wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve also been using the Alpha for around two weeks. I'm impressed by how GitHub Copilot seems to know exactly what I want to type next. Sometimes it even suggests code I was about to look up, such as a snippet to pick a random hex color or completing an array with all the common image mime-types. Copilot is particularly helpful when working on React components where it makes eerily accurate predictions. I see techno…

I have been using the Alpha for two weeks as well. I'm impressed by how GitHub Copilot appears to know exactly what I want to type. Not often it even suggests code I was going to peek, such as a snippet to a context menu or completing an array with all Romanian postcodes. Copilot is particularly helpful when working on Angular components where it makes mesmerising predictions. I see technology like Copilot becoming a…

Is this a joke? Top 3 comments follow almost an identical format?

Re: GitHub Copilot

#834

Post by Jeff_Brown »

varispeed wrote: post #746
billti wrote: post #688

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The landing page for it states the below, so hopefully not too much of an issue (though I guess some folks may find a 0.1% risk high). > GitHub Copilot is a code synthesizer, not a search engine: the vast majority of the code that it suggests is uniquely generated and has never been seen before. We found that about 0.1% of the time, the suggestion may contain some snippets that are verbatim from the training set.

Did they have a license to use public source code as a data source for data set though?

God I wish contracts were encoded semantically rather than as plain text. I just tried to look through Github's terms of service[1]. I'd search for "Github can with code" if I could. Instead I'm giving up.

[1] https://docs.github.com/en/github/site-policy/github-terms-o...

Re: GitHub Copilot

#835

Post by Jeff_Brown »

anthropodie wrote: post #335
asdfman123 wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pack it all up, boys, programming's over. Hello, AI. Anyone want to hire me to teach your grandma how to use the internet?

Few days back, Sam Altman tweeted this "Prediction: AI will cause the price of work that can happen in front of a computer to decrease much faster than the price of work that happens in the physical world. This is the opposite of what most people (including me) expected, and will have strange effects" And I was like yeah I gotta start preparing for next decade.

True self-improving general AI would put all labor out of business. Incomes would then be determined by only the ownership of capital and government redistribution. Could be heaven, could be hell.

Re: GitHub Copilot

#836

Post by discordance »

aprinsen wrote: post #833
varispeed wrote: post #745

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been using the Alpha for two weeks as well. I'm impressed by how GitHub Copilot appears to know exactly what I want to type. Not often it even suggests code I was going to peek, such as a snippet to a context menu or completing an array with all Romanian postcodes. Copilot is particularly helpful when working on Angular components where it makes mesmerising predictions. I see technology like Copilot becoming a…

Is this a joke? Top 3 comments follow almost an identical format?

It's a feature not a bug. Copilot also assists with HN comments!

Re: GitHub Copilot

#837

Post by wholinator2 »

aprinsen wrote: post #833
varispeed wrote: post #745

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been using the Alpha for two weeks as well. I'm impressed by how GitHub Copilot appears to know exactly what I want to type. Not often it even suggests code I was going to peek, such as a snippet to a context menu or completing an array with all Romanian postcodes. Copilot is particularly helpful when working on Angular components where it makes mesmerising predictions. I see technology like Copilot becoming a…

Is this a joke? Top 3 comments follow almost an identical format?

Right? Im getting heavy astroturf vibes from these repetitive, nearly perfectly phrased, corporate sounding paragraphs of pure praise.

Re: GitHub Copilot

#839

Post by MathYouF »

leotaku wrote: post #748
MathYouF wrote: post #737

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Says the person who likely owns a washing machine, sink connected to plumbing, microwave, stove, lighters, clothes made with a sewing machine, ect. ect. GPT-3 will take way less time to make a good substitute that costs the power of compute than other historical time saving technologies. Unlike other historic technologies, they pretty much spell out exactly how to do it, and own no patents related to its creation. I…

I see your point, but aren't you making me into a bit of a straw man? When did I say that I was some open-access Luddite who won't use any technology that they can't build themselves. I just like the current state of programming, where I can productively build new and exciting things without having to rely on a lot of proprietary libraries or tools. Nothing more, nothing less.

Luddite: a person opposed to new technology or ways of working.

Seems like you came up with the perfect word to describe your view on this. :P

I defintiely do think there is reason to worry about the future you're imagining happening, but as someone who has read through the papers on gpt, this is in no way going to end up being an exclusive proprietary API, so it'll very soon have open source and likely free or at compute cost options.

And well, if it doesn't make us better, no one will use it. If it does, you'll have to adjust to remain competitive, just like millions of professionals for going back millenia who encounter new technology in their chose and vocation. Ultimately, if it makes us better, and doesn't enslave us to the whims of a monopolistic holder (which the point of my post was to conjecture that it likely wouldn't) then it'll probably (though not defintiely) be better for us long term.

Hopefully it doesn't erode programmers abilities like spell check seems to have eroded people's spelling abilities but I fear that's a likely side effect.

Re: GitHub Copilot

#840

Post by DantesKite »

ImprobableTruth wrote: post #352
beeskneecaps wrote: post #9

Four years later: your AI replacement? When do you all predict something like this will happen?

Unless we achieve AGI this is never going to replace programming because it will instead just make programming a higher level task. And well, if we achieve AGI (which I think could be pretty soon), all jobs will replaced, so it's not something I think anybody should be worried about.

I'd love to live in a world where AGI solves cancer.
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