GitHub has released an updated version of its developer assistant called Copilot X, which provides enhanced assistance to programmers. The new version includes a chatbot function and voice input to assist programmers with coding tasks. 

The chatbot suggests code fragments and ways to test and fixes errors. Copilot X now supports the latest version of the GPT-4 language model, but not all components require it. GitHub plans to use different models for different tasks.

The previous version of Copilot was a tool that automatically appended individual lines of code and gained popularity among hundreds of thousands of developers. The new version of Copilot X takes the capabilities of Copilot to another level, as it integrates natively with Visual Studio’s integrated development environment (IDE) and VS Code source code editor. Copilot X also includes a ChatGPT-style chatbot that provides detailed analysis and explanations of what blocks of code are intended to do, generates unit tests, and even proposes bug fixes.

Copilot X also aims to revolutionize the experience of its users by allowing them to interact with code in new ways. Its ChatGPT-style tool allows programmers to ask questions by analyzing lines of code, pull requests, and project documentation. Copilot X also includes Copilot Voice, which allows programmers to perform actions using their voice.

GitHub intends to use GPT-4 for much more than code hinting. Copilot X will also allow for an easier understanding of the software programmers work on by allowing them to explore its documentation. The other great feature that Copilot X intends to get a lot of use out of is pull requests. Copilot X will add automatic tags to the descriptions of change review requests and suggest sentences and paragraphs to developers when they create new pull requests. Copilot X will also generate warnings when it detects that not enough tests were done on them.

Copilot has been utilized by over 1 million developers since its inception and has written 46% of the platform’s code. Yet, it has also been criticized for “stealing” the work of other developers. Despite this, GitHub hopes that Copilot X will elevate the experience and revolutionize programmers’ jobs.