Microsoft today confirmed its GitHub Copilot service is now generally available for businesses. Until this announcement, the project has only been available to individual users. Copilot is a collaboration between Microsoft and partner OpenAI.
While the GitHub Copilot service for individuals is available for $10 per month or $100 per year (per user), the Copilot for Business tier costs $19 per user each month. Microsoft points that the new subscription has all the features of the individual plan but adds additional tools like license management, policy management, corporate proxy support, and privacy.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took to LinkedIn to personally introduce the new business version of the service.
Microsoft says GitHub Copilot is now being driven by a new version of its underpinning AI. The company describes “a more advanced OpenAI model and new capabilities.”
The new abilities include:
- “A more powerful AI model: New modeling algorithms improve the quality of code suggestions.
- AI-based security vulnerability filtering: GitHub Copilot automatically blocks common insecure code suggestions by targeting issues such as hardcoded credentials, SQL injections, and path injections.
- VPN proxy support: GitHub Copilot works with VPNs, including with self-signed certificates, so developers can use it in any working environment.
- Simple sign-up: Any company can quickly purchase Copilot for Business licenses online, and easily assign seats—even if they don't use the GitHub platform for their source code.”
What Is GitHub Copilot?
Introduced in 2021, Copilot is a service that accesses available open-source code to help developers fill gaps in their own code. It taps into work from Microsoft-owned GitHub and gives programmers tools to write code more efficiently and quickly.
The system runs on a new AI platform developed by OpenAI known as Codex. Despite receiving widespread criticism from open-source copyright advocates, Copilot eventually made its full launch debut in June 2022.
Despite Microsoft's ongoing development of GitHub Copilot, it is not without its issues. The service is facing A class action lawsuit by Matthew Butterick, who claims Microsoft is violating GitHub's policies and code ethics such as attribution. Elsewhere, a recent study shows Copilot may produce less accurate and less secure code than human developers.
Tip of the day: To prevent attackers from capturing your password, Secure Sign-in asks the user to perform a physical action that activates the sign-in screen. In some cases, this is a dedicated “Windows Security” button, but the most common case in Windows is the Ctrl+Alt Del hotkey. In our tutorial, we show you how to activate this feature.
Last Updated on February 23, 2023 1:48 pm CET by Markus Kasanmascheff
