The partnership will allow Google Cloud and Workspace developers to use Replit’s collaborative code editing platform that allows them to create and share apps online.

The announcement comes just a week after Github announced the release of Copilot X, an enhanced version of its artificial intelligence software development platform that uses the latest OpenAI GPT-4 model and extends Copilot’s capabilities by adding chat and voice features and allowing developers to get instant answers to project questions.

Replit’s Ghostwriter app will use Google’s language patterns to suggest code blocks, complete programs, and answer developers’ questions instantly. According to the company, more than 30% of the code written by developers using Ghostwriter is generated by artificial intelligence. The most sophisticated language models can generate complete programs with simple hints in natural language, allowing the creation of complete websites in just a few minutes and with no programming experience required.

Until language models are integrated into development environments, the future envisioned by Replit’s CEO, Amjad Masad, in which AI helps non-developers become developers, turns software engineers into hyper-productive “10X engineers,” and enables 1000X performance for complex software, remains out of reach.

The platform supports more than 50 programming languages and allows users to create apps and websites through any browser and device (including mobile). It facilitates collaboration and project sharing, as well as access to code execution containers.

Copilot has the ability to learn the programming style of individual developers. By analyzing the code written by a developer over time, the tool can learn their coding patterns and suggest code snippets that match their style.

“With artificial intelligence available at every step, we can fundamentally redefine developer productivity. We’re reducing templates and manual tasks and making complex work easier throughout the developer lifecycle,”

explains Thomas Domke, CEO of GitHub.

Some developers worry about the impact of AI-assisted programming on the job market. Questions have also been raised about Copilot’s potential to copy code verbatim and the potential copyright implications.

Copilot X supports all languages that appear in public repositories, but works particularly well with Python, Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby and Go.