GitHub Copilot is now available to everyone, but there are caveats to using it

Read: GitHub Copilot is here to help programmers with AI coding advice, but will it make things worse?

The number of words in this article: 1634, the reading time is about 2 minutes

In 2021, I’ve spent hours flipping through the GitHub Copilot documentation, trying to figure out how I can join its Tech Preview program. Fortunately, it all paid off and I successfully joined the preview program.

And now, it’s finally available to everyone!

GitHub Copilot if you don’t already know
? copilot.github.com
is an AI assistant that helps you write code faster and more efficiently.

The most similar thing I can think of is the (input method’s) autocomplete feature on your phone. However, unlike autocomplete, GitHub Copilot writes code as if it were completing an entire sentence.

Copilot is now available to the general public

As I mentioned earlier, Copilot has been in technology preview for almost a year. This means that GitHub only allows a very limited number of developers to use it for free in exchange for agreeing to GitHub to monitor their usage in order to improve the final version of the program.

It looks like GitHub is finally happy to release it to the public. Now, anyone with a GitHub account should be able to use it, albeit at a price (which I’ll mention below shortly).

announcement
? github.blog
mentioned in:

Until recently, AI was not able to help improve code, and the process of developing software was almost entirely manual. Now, that’s changing. Today, I’m happy to announce that we’re making GitHub Copilot available to all individual developers
? copilot.github.com
. Here comes your AI matchmaker.

—Thomas Dohmke
? github.blog
, GitHub CEO

Copilot is a free editor extension that has helped millions of developers speed up their programming. However, it does come at a cost, both direct and indirect.

GitHub Copilot pricing

As with almost any exciting new technology, Copilot may be too expensive for some. It will cost you $10/month or $100/year.

If you are an open source project maintainer or a verified student, then you can use it for free.

Is GitHub Copilot unethical?

The controversy surrounding the GitHub Copilot product is huge and worrying. Technically, this AI is trained using code that everyone hosts on GitHub.

So basically, GitHub is offering a new product by using your code (and a little more if you like). And, regarding Copilot, don’t forget that the Free Software Foundation (FSF) also recommends
? www.fsf.org
Do not host code on GitHub.

We know that businesses always like to take advantage of things, but some argue that this shouldn’t directly harm projects/code hosted on GitHub.

But, is that so?

In short, after Copilot was released, many developers shared that they found that GitHub Copilot generated copyrighted code:

I tried GitHub Copilot, a paid service, to see if it would use code from repositories with restrictive licenses. I checked it to see if it had code I wrote at my previous employer, which has a license that only allows it to be used in free games and requires additional licenses. Yes, it does have.

Source: Chris Green on Twitter

Of course, if we look at GitHub Copilot’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), it mentions:

GitHub does not own suggestions generated by GitHub Copilot. The code you write with the help of GitHub Copilot is yours and is your responsibility.

So, you paid for a service, only to end up adding inconvenience and more work to your project?

In my opinion, this doesn’t sound exciting at all in terms of simplifying the developer’s task.

The text and pictures in this article are from Linux China