Microsoft has unveiled Infra Copilot, a new generative AI tool designed to assist in coding for infrastructure systems. Leveraging the foundation of GitHub Copilot, this new tool aims to interpret the intent behind user prompts, generating accurate infrastructure code through machine learning. The announcement, made via a blog post, positions Infra Copilot as a solution for professionals to articulate requirements in natural language, receiving code suggestions that align with their needs.
Enhancing Productivity and Consistency
Infra Copilot promises to enhance the efficiency of programmers by allowing them to focus on higher-level tasks while the tool takes care of generating standardized code snippets. This standardization ensures consistency across various environments, addressing a common challenge in infrastructure coding projects. Microsoft emphasizes the potential of Infra Copilot to not only reduce development time but also serve as an educational resource for programmers unfamiliar with the intricacies of infrastructure code.
Availability and Integration
Available to users with the latest version of Visual Studio Code and a GitHub Copilot license, Infra Copilot requires the installation of the Copilot extension and signing in from Visual Studio Code. Additionally, the installation of the PowerShell extension is necessary to commence utilization. Alongside Infra Copilot, Microsoft has introduced GitHub Copilot Enterprise, a variant that generates code and answers questions using data from a company’s own code repositories and knowledge base, priced at $39 per month per user.
Growth of AI Coding Tools, Microsoft and Beyond
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- A tool that got an equity investment from Microsoft is Builder.ai, an AI software firm that offers Natasha AI product manager through Microsoft Teams. Builder.ai and GitHub Copilot are two different types of AI-powered tools for software development. Builder.ai is a no-code platform that lets users make apps by picking from various templates and features, without writing any code.
- Google also partnered with Replit to offer Ghostwriter, an AI tool that helps developers write code. The partnership also gives Replit developers access to Google Cloud and vice versa. Moreover, Google brought code generation and debugging to its Bard AI chatbot. Users can write their coding questions or requests in natural language, and Bard will generate multiple drafts of possible responses for them to pick from.
- Amazon launched CodeWhisperer, a free AI tool that competes with GitHub Copilot. It works with Python, JavaScript, and Java languages and integrates with popular IDEs like PyCharm and Visual Studio Code. It helps users write code faster and easier. CodeWhisperer is integrated with AWS services and tools, such as Lambda, CloudFormation, and Amplify.
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- In May, Meta introduced CodeCompose, an AI-powered tool that offers code suggestions for various languages including Python, as developers type in Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) like VS Code. The tool can utilize its understanding of the surrounding code to provide enhanced suggestions.
- Chinese company Baidu is also competing in this space with its own coding AI. Comate is compatible with mainstream Integrated Development Environment (IDE) frameworks and supports more than 30 programming languages, with a strong emphasis on C/C++, Python, and Java.
- In July, Stack Overflow introduced its OverflowAI coding assistant. OverflowAI is a web-based tool that allows users to input natural language queries and get code snippets generated by a deep learning model trained on millions of Stack Overflow posts and other sources. The platform supports various programming languages, such as Python, C#, Java, and SQL.
- Hugging Face has been positioning itself as a leader in the AI market and the company’s SafeCoder reflects the ongoing success. Launched in August, the tool ensures that code remains within the Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) during both training and inference stages. The design of SafeCoder allows for on-premises deployment, giving enterprises ownership of their code, similar to a personalized GitHub Copilot.
Last Updated on November 7, 2024 8:48 pm CET
