The enterprise version of GitHub’s Copilot tool, which adds code using artificial intelligence technology, has been released for open access. However, users from Ukraine faced the impossibility of using the service without a VPN.

Based on the context of the developer’s code, Copilot adds parts of it, from small new lines to complex algorithms. GitHub Copilot generates about 27% of the code on GitHub as of last year, 61% of which is Java. According to reviews, the tool significantly speeds up development. Since 2021, several hundred organizations have been using early access to the service in their work, the public release made the tool available to everyone (well, almost). The following were also added to the release:

• New modeling algorithms and more powerful AI
• AI-based filtering of vulnerabilities, blocking their addition to the code
• Full VPN functionality including self-signed certificates
• Advanced license and policy management within an organization
• Additional privacy
• Simplification of registration

The AI, called OpenAI Codex, was trained on terabytes of open source code and is, according to OpenAI CTO Greg Brockman, a programming version of GPT-3. It acts as an assistant when using the parallel programming method (as the name Copilot suggests), without the need to involve a backup programmer.

Problems with access in Ukraine began immediately after the release of Copilot For Business. Users began to complain about the loss of connection with the program’s plugins. The most probable version is the lack of support from OpenAI, which has already led to the blocking of ChatGPT in Ukraine. In short, the essence of the company’s policy is not to violate the sanctions regarding work in Crimea and “LDNR”, the company does not work in Ukraine at all, just in case, which looks absurd in the context of the meaning of the sanctions. Neither GitHub nor OpenAI has yet commented on the situation.

GitHub and OpenAI launched Copilot – an AI tool for autocompletion of code fragments based on the OpenAI Codex neural network model

Source: AIN.ua