4 Concerns I Have About GitHub Copilot

Don’t rush into using GitHub Copilot just yet

Photo by Roman Synkevych on Unsplash.

GitHub Copilot. Yes, the new tool on the block integrated directly into GitHub. If you follow technology and programming news, you are already aware of this tool. If you have no clue what GitHub Copilot is, GitHub describes it as “your AI pair programmer.” This means that you will get suggestions for whole lines or entire functions right inside your editor. Interesting, right?

Well, I have a few reservations regarding this tool. I thought of sharing the different reasons why I am not excited about it. By the way, I know it has not been out there for a long time, so my views are just mine. I am not sure it is a tool I will be using anytime soon or at all. I am not even sure it is a tool I can recommend to new programmers out there.

Here is why.

1. It May Expose You to Liability

You might be wondering where this code is actually coming from. Well, the answer is quite simple. It comes from GitHub. When they made this machine learning model, they trained it on millions of open source repositories from GitHub.

This, at least for me, is where the first problem exists. GitHub Copilot is most assuredly going to disrespect open source licenses. When that happens…