Microsoft?s Code-Writing AI Points to the Future of Computers

And because the model was trained on natural language as well as code, it can even respond to simple questions about how to build things.While it’s unclear how reliably the system might work outside the demo, similar tricks could be used to make other applications respond to typed or spoken commands.Microsoft has built an AI coding tool called GitHub Copilot on top of the same technology. He describes Copilot as “super useful” in situations when he has to work with a less familiar programming language, as it removes the need to keep searching for snippets of code on coding Q&A sites like Stack Overflow.Ritu Jyoti, vice president of artificial intelligence and automation research at IDC, an analyst firm, says she expects AI-powered tools to revolutionize software development. He says the company is currently testing other features, including one that would let Copilot suggest a new way of writing something if it spots a problem, as well as a way for it to automatically add helpful comments to code.Microsoft is not the only company that thinks recent advances in AI might change the way we use computers.