Microsoft announced GitHub Copilot in 2021, a controversial coding tool that leverages AI to access code from GitHub and use it to fill code in user's projects. The service was also a trailblazer for Microsoft, which has since followed it up with Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Security Copilot. Now, Google wants to provide a direct rival to GitHub Copilot and is teaming with Replit to develop a service.
Of course, Google and Microsoft are now major opponents in the AI market. Microsoft has frankly taken the world by storm through its ironclad multi-billion-dollar partnership with OpenAI. The company is tapping into GPT-4 to revolutionize search and browsers with Bing Chat, a chatbot AI.
Google – which has dominated search and browsers – is for the first time playing catchup. The company's own Bard chatbot debuted this month, but it is Microsoft that continues to grab the AI headlines.
However, Google and Replit think they can make a dent in Microsoft's growing AI success by competing directly with GitHub Copilot. The two companies have entered a strategic partnership the will give Replit developers access to Google Cloud and customers of Google Cloud will get Replit's Ghostwriter software development AI.
“Generative AI can bring significant new capabilities to businesses and developers, including the ability to easily, safely, and scalably create new software applications and online experiences with little or no coding experience,” said June Yang, VP, Cloud AI, and Industry Solutions at Google Cloud. “Google Cloud infrastructure and foundation models in Vertex AI will power Replit's widely-adopted platform, delivering more performance and scalability to millions of developers around the world.”
Chatbot AI in Ghostwriter
Developers using Ghostwriter are using AI to generate 30% of their code on average. By accessing large language models like Google Bard, users can generate code with simple prompts. Yes, that is similar or equal to how GitHub Copilot X – which launched this month – works.
“Our partnership with Google Cloud on infrastructure and AI is a clear step toward our mission of bringing the next billion software creators online. AI has changed software development forever. The seamless idea-to-deployed software experience that Replit provides developers will continue to set a new bar for software creation,” said Amjad Masad, the CEO and Head of Engineering at Replit. “We're thrilled to build this.”
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.
