github copilot与chatgpt的进一步展开说明

Overview

GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT are two popular artificial intelligence writing tools that have gained traction recently. While both tools are designed to assist with writing and provide code snippets, they differ in their capabilities and target audiences. This article will explore the features and abilities of each tool and provide insights to help you decide which one is best suited for your needs.

GitHub Copilot — An Overview

GitHub Copilot is an AI writing tool powered by Codex, a generative pre-trained language model developed by OpenAI. It leverages code and comments context to suggest individual lines and even complete functions. As an AI programmer, it offers autocomplete-style suggestions as you write code.

GitHub Copilot can provide suggestions based on the code you are writing or by describing your desired code in natural language comments. By analyzing the context of the file you are editing, it offers relevant suggestions from within the text editor.

The tool is trained on public repositories and supports multiple programming languages. The quality of suggestions may vary depending on the diversity and volume of training data available for each language. It can be seamlessly integrated into popular code editors such as Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, and Neovim.

GitHub Copilot Features

• AI-based suggestions: GitHub Copilot offers code recommendations tailored to your project’s context and style conventions, enabling you to save time.
• Problem-solving focus: The tool helps you create efficient code by reducing the time spent on writing repetitive boilerplate code, allowing you to focus on creating high-quality software.
• Faster coding: Developers worldwide use GitHub Copilot to write code more quickly, allowing them to focus on building great software.
• Direct integration: GitHub Copilot seamlessly integrates into the code editor, providing real-time suggestions as you type.

GitHub Copilot Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Excellent at writing boilerplate code: GitHub Copilot can generate boilerplate code that can be reused and saves time by eliminating the need to write the same code multiple times.
• Fast CDN importing: The tool allows you to import libraries quickly by simply writing the library name and ‘cdn’ in a comment.
• Easy to use: GitHub Copilot offers suggestions without being obtrusive, allowing you to choose when to incorporate them into your code.
• Problem resolution: GitHub Copilot can create elements and resolve errors in your code, making it a valuable learning tool.
• Learning capabilities: By providing well-commented code suggestions, Copilot can help developers learn and understand new concepts.

Cons:

• Flow interruption: Reviewing code suggestions may disrupt the workflow during project development.
• Difficulty in understanding suggestions: Sometimes, the tool may suggest code that is difficult to comprehend.
• Partial error code: GitHub Copilot may generate code with partial errors, which could lead to wasted time for developers who need to correct the errors.
• Security and liability concerns: The origin, license, and copyright of code suggestions may raise valid concerns that are challenging to address.

ChatGPT — An Overview

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot developed by OpenAI, launched in November 2023. Built on OpenAI’s GPT language models and fine-tuned using reinforcement and supervised learning methods, ChatGPT quickly gained attention for its articulate answers and detailed responses across various knowledge domains.

According to an analysis by UBS, ChatGPT is the fastest-growing application of all time, with an estimated 100 million users within two months of its launch. It is a natural language processing tool that allows users to engage in human-like conversations and perform various tasks, including composing essays, coding, and generating emails.

OpenAI recently released GPT4 in March 2023, which offers more advanced features and a large multimodal model. Users can access GPT4 through a subscription to ChatGPT Plus or by joining the waitlist.

ChatGPT Features

• Answering inquiries and replies: ChatGPT can mimic human conversations and provide detailed answers and responses to queries and questions.
• Addressing numerical issues: In addition to conversational capabilities, the tool can solve numerical problems, such as math and accounting-related queries.
• Text generation: ChatGPT can generate various types of texts, including messages, articles, and scripts.
• Troubleshooting and fixing: The tool can identify and address errors in code blocks.
• Previous prompts: ChatGPT retains memory of previous prompts, allowing it to provide personalized responses. Moderation filters are implemented to ensure appropriate content.
• Integrations: ChatGPT can be integrated with VSCode using the Code GPT extension.

ChatGPT Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Personalized interactions: ChatGPT can engage in personalized conversations with customers, providing a human-like experience and enhancing customer relationships.
• Enhanced productivity: The tool automates routine tasks, enabling human employees to focus on more complex work, enhancing overall productivity and efficiency.
• Improved customer service: ChatGPT can handle a large volume of customer queries and provide accurate responses, improving support capabilities for brands and businesses.
• Available 24/7: The tool can operate around the clock, providing customer support at any time.
• Savings: ChatGPT minimizes the need for human customer service staff, resulting in cost savings for businesses.

Cons:

• Internet connectivity dependence: The tool requires an internet connection to function, which may not be suitable in contexts with limited or no internet access.
• Bias potential: Like any AI technology, ChatGPT’s responses may exhibit bias if the training data used contains biased information.
• Limited domain knowledge: ChatGPT is a general-purpose language model and may lack expertise or specialized knowledge in certain domains or tasks.
• Privacy concerns: Some individuals may have concerns about privacy implications, particularly when sharing personal information with an AI tool.
• Limited creative abilities: ChatGPT is not capable of original content creation or creative thinking, making it less suitable for tasks requiring these abilities.

GitHub Copilot vs. ChatGPT — A Comparison

GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT serve different purposes, with Copilot focusing on assisting developers in writing code efficiently and ChatGPT catering to general use cases, including programming. Let’s compare the two tools based on key parameters:

How GitHub Copilot works: The tool utilizes OpenAI GPT⑶, a language prediction model, to understand code context and offer suggestions on code completion. It can generate variable names, functions, and algorithms aligned with your coding style when starting a project. However, using it mid-project may result in suggestions that require significant modifications to existing code. Copilot learns from the code you write and improves over time.

How ChatGPT works: ChatGPT is designed for engaging in conversations on various topics. When provided with prompts, it generates text that continues the conversation. ChatGPT can assist with tasks such as generating unit tests and other programming-related questions. It is worth noting that the model is trained on events up until 2023 and may not provide information on more recent events. The tool performs better with detailed instructions.

GitHub Copilot User Interface

GitHub Copilot offers a user-friendly interface that can significantly reduce the need for coding expertise in a company. With the extension installed and signed in, you can seamlessly start coding. The user interface, as seen in popular code editors like Visual Studio Code, ensures a smooth experience.

ChatGPT User Interface

ChatGPT facilitates a wide range of interactions, from simple to complex difficulties. It can also translate text into different languages. The clean and satisfactory user interface, combined with the power of the GPT⑶ model, provides an excellent user experience.

Code Comparison between GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT

GitHub Copilot specializes in code completion and offers suggestions to improve productivity by generating repetitive, simple code snippets. ChatGPT, on the other hand, is a chatbot framework that can also assist developers in the software development process.

Copilot excels at suggesting concrete function implementations, while ChatGPT can provide guidance in designing larger systems and providing implementation roadmaps. For example, ChatGPT can help create a syntax for a new programming language, build context-free grammar, and recommend steps for compiler implementation. On the other hand, Copilot assists in creating simple functionalities, such as parseExpression(), by analyzing the project structure and context. Let’s compare their code suggestions for the same query in Python:

GitHub Copilot’s response for binary search:


def binary_search(arr: List[int], target: int) -> Optional[int]:
"""
Perform binary search to find the index of the target element in the sorted array.

Args:
arr (List[int]): The sorted array to search in.
target (int): The element to find.

Returns:
Optional[int]: The index of the target element in the array.
"""
low, high = 0, len(arr) - 1
while low <= high: mid = (low + high) // 2 if arr[mid] == target: return mid elif arr[mid] < target: low = mid + 1 else: high = mid - 1 return None

ChatGPT's response for binary search:


def binary_search(arr, target):
"""
Perform binary search on a sorted array to find the index of the target element.
Args:
- arr: the sorted array to search in
- target: the element to find
Returns:
- the index of target element in the array
"""
n = len(arr)
low = 0
high = n - 1
while low <= high: mid = (low + high) // 2 if arr[mid] == target: return mid elif arr[mid] > target:
high = mid - 1
else:
low = mid + 1
return ⑴


Pricing Comparison between GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT

ChatGPT Plus, the new subscription plan, costs around $20 per month and is available to customers outside the United States.

GitHub Copilot is available on a monthly or yearly basis. The monthly subscription fee is $10 per month, while the annual subscription costs $100.

Conclusion

When choosing between GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT, it is important to consider your specific requirements. GitHub Copilot is primarily focused on helping developers write code faster by providing code suggestions and snippets. ChatGPT, on the other hand, has a broader scope and can assist with various tasks beyond coding. If you are a programmer looking to increase coding efficiency, Copilot would be the preferred tool. However, if you need assistance in a broader range of scenarios, ChatGPT can provide valuable support. Ultimately, understanding your business needs will help you make an informed decision.

github copilot与chatgpt的常见问答Q&A