According to a recent announcement from GitHub, a natural language-driven coding tool called GitHub Copilot Chat is now available. This tool is part of GitHub Copilot and aims to elevate natural language to a universal programming language.

Powered by GPT-4, GitHub Copilot Chat is a context-aware AI assistant tailored for development scenarios. It provides real-time guidance to developers without leaving the integrated development environment (IDE), supporting them in tasks ranging from interpreting complex coding concepts to detecting security vulnerabilities and writing unit tests.

The tool is widely compatible with Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio, and is accessible to all individual users of GitHub Copilot. Enterprise and organization administrators can grant access to Copilot Chat by enabling the feature for their users. Verified educators, students, and maintainers of popular open-source projects can also use it for free. Developers can prompt Copilot Chat with natural language in their preferred language, including German, Portuguese, and more. It offers personalized services to each developer, aligning with their unique coding practices and aiming to facilitate rapid innovation.

GitHub Copilot Chat supports seamless translation between programming languages, simplifying tasks such as code standardization, monolith decomposition, and performance optimization. Developers can use the tool to understand code and translate it into the target language, reducing the need for rewriting and transferring logic. The tool adapts to each developer's coding practices and provides real-time support for various coding tasks.

The announcement includes insights from GitHub developers on how to leverage Copilot Chat in their workflows. For example, they use Copilot Chat to translate JavaScript applications into Java and then into C#. The tool facilitates this process by generating high-quality results and assisting in generating unit tests. Another example highlights the use of Copilot Chat to quickly convert code between different languages, saving time spent searching for specific command flags or syntax. A third example emphasizes the use of Copilot Chat to update coding practices, enabling developers to focus on deeper thinking.

Geert Baeke at X (formerly Twitter) also mentioned his successful experience using Copilot Chat:

"I wanted to plot a few embeddings on a 2D graph. In the past, I had to search for how to do dimensionality reduction, how matplotlib works, what other libraries to use, etc. Now, it only takes a few seconds on the GitHub Copilot chat tool. It may not be the best, but it supports my data, so it's good enough."

GitHub is committed to integrating artificial intelligence throughout the entire development lifecycle, helping developers excel while enjoying the development process.