GitHub Copilot

Released: June 2021

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Copilot is a cloud-based automated code generation tool launched by software development community GitHub in June 2021. Initially launched as a limited access 'technical preview', it became available by subscription to developers in June 2022.

Developed in conjunction with OpenAI, Copilot was developed using OpenAI's Codex algorithm, which is based on its GPT-3 large language model and trained on publically available source code of different projects in Github repositories.Β 

Programmers have generally welcomed GitHub Copilot, but others have pointed out that it reproduces large chunks of copyrighted code verbatim without attributing their owners, raising questions about 'fair use' and licensing and opening it to accusations of copyright abuse and 'code laundering'.

Code generation

In computing, code generation denotes software techniques or systems that generate program code which may then be used independently of the generator system in a runtime environment.

Source: Wikipedia πŸ”—

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Transparency and accountability πŸ™ˆ

Github Copilot has been criticised for important transparency and accountability limitations, including:

Risks and harms πŸ›‘

Github Copilot has been accused of violating copyright, compromising security, and potentially harming privacy.Β 

It is also seen to negatively impact the education and training of programmers.

Incidents and issues πŸ”₯

Legal, regulatory πŸ‘©πŸΌβ€βš–οΈ

Page info
Type: System
Published: July 2021
Last updated: January 2025