Good news for programmers; Copilot GitHub will also support Google, OpenAI and Anthropic models

GitHub plans to add support for different models to expand its code completion and programming tools. In other words, developers will soon be able to use the artificial intelligence models of Anthropic, Google and OpenAI companies in the Copilot tool. This news was announced during the GitHub Universe conference alongside the introduction of Spark, an artificial intelligence tool for building web applications, and new updates to Copilot in Visual Studio Code, Xcode, and other platforms.

Copilot users on the web or Visual Studio Code will soon be able to choose Claude 3.5 and Jamnai 1.5 Pro models. OpenAI’s GPT-4o, o1-preview, and o1-mini models will also be available. Developers can switch between these models while conversing with Copilot Chat to find the best answers for their specific task.

Thomas Dahomeke“There is no single model that can fit all scenarios, and developers expect to work with the model that works best,” says GitHub’s CEO.

Now owned by Microsoft, GitHub pioneered CoPilot in 2021 as its first AI tool. The goal is for the tool to become the core of Microsoft’s AI efforts. Copilot is the first notable result of Microsoft’s initial $1 billion investment in OpenAI, and the Copilot tool now has over a million paid subscribers. However, it will be interesting to see if Microsoft will also follow the approach of supporting multiple AI models on GitHub and if the company’s AI assistant will provide such a feature.

GitHub’s new artificial intelligence product is called Spark, which facilitates the creation of web applications using natural language. This tool creates a live preview of the user’s desired web application using OpenAI and Anthropic models. Spark users can compare different versions when making changes. Spark allows both experienced developers to directly manipulate code and enables beginners to build web applications entirely using natural language.

After building a web application with Spark, you can run it on your PC, tablet or smartphone, and share it with others. This tool is part of GitHub’s vision to reach one billion developers. “For a long time, there was an insurmountable barrier for the vast majority of the world’s population to enter the world of software development,” says Dahomeke. With Spark, we’re making it possible for more than a billion PC and smartphone users to build and share their apps directly on GitHub.”

Another new feature of GitHub is the ability to edit multiple files in Visual Studio Code. This feature allows users to edit multiple files simultaneously using Copilot Chat. Copilot plugins as well as public preview of Copilot for Xcode will be available in early 2025.