Microsoft Github No Longer Exclusive with OpenAI

GitHub is going multi-model for its Copilot code completion and programming tool.

Hey Everyone,

Multi-modal choice for devs on Github means Microsoft is no longer just supporting ChatGPT.

In the complex relationship between OpenAI and Microsoft, Github Copilot is no longer exclusive! This could be a big deal for how developers are incentivised to use multiple AI coding platforms as they have already been doing since 2023.

Microsoft's GitHub just announced that it is expanding its AI coding assistant to include models from Anthropic and Google, alongside a series of new updates and features to the platform — breaking from the company’s traditional OpenAI exclusivity.

Perplexity also has built an integration now with Github Copilot, so it’s not just Claude and Google.

Github Copilot is the Copilot that I think is working the best for Microsoft and millions of users apparently use Github Copilot. Microsoft GitHub has agreed to bake artificial intelligence models from Anthropic and Alphabet Inc.’s Google into a coding assistant used by millions of software developers. 

GitHub is also launching Spark, an AI tool that helps anyone build web apps. Anthropic’s Claude has been the best frontier model for code for quite some time, so Microsoft was forced to do this based on how Github Copilot’s users actually use these tools. But what does it mean for OpenAI and ChatGPT?

After teaming up with OpenAI a few years ago, GitHub pioneered the use of generative artificial intelligence to automate tedious parts of the coding process. But the world keeps evolving and GitHub Copilot needs to go multi-modal for its efficiency quite literally!

The details:

• The platform will allow developers to switch between assistants, including Claude and Gemini, although OpenAI's models remain the default choice.

• GitHub also introduced Spark, a new feature that allows users to build applications with natural language prompts.

• The platform announced features including multi-file editing, Copilot code reviews, new agentic updates to Workspaces, and Apple Xcode support.

• GitHub's decision to embrace multiple AI providers comes as its Copilot service reaches a major milestone with over a million paying subscribers.

This is a major win for Claude and how coders actually use tools like Claude and Cursor, for example. Spark, which is officially an experiment the company is launching out of its GitHub Next labs, allows you to quickly build a small web app using nothing but natural language. Call it no-code or what you will.

The new Claude 3.5 Sonnet begins rolling out on GitHub Copilot, enabling developers to choose Claude 3.5 Sonnet for coding—directly in Visual Studio Code and GitHub.com.

GitHub Copilot has long leveraged different large language models (LLMs) for different use cases. But now it’s finally going more agnostic, the way it should have always been.

Developers can now finally choose to work on GitHub Copilot with Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro, or of course the usual OpenAI’s o1-preview and o1-mini.

Since acquiring GitHub in 2018, Microsoft has let the coding platform maintain a wide array of partnerships — even if they’re technically Microsoft rivals. Anthropic runs on AWS, and has a far better reputation for coding than OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Because GitHub Copilot now allows users to choose which large language model they want to use, it’s no surprise that Spark offers the same capability. GitHub Copilot users on the web or VS Code can select Claude 3.5, with Gemini 1.5 Pro in the coming weeks.

Microsoft still tries to lock in some customers. Microsoft also lets its Azure cloud customers use models other than OpenAI’s, including ones from Meta Inc. and Mistral, but doesn’t offer models from Google or Anthropic. 

Microsoft Sidesteps OpenAI Again

Is this a sign that the weird relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI is breaking down or just a sign of the times of how Github Copilot users actually need to work?

If GitHub prioritizes giving users the best developer experience everyone in 2024 knows that Anthropic has pulled ahead of OpenAI in coding and their usage reflects that. It’s quite ironic that Microsoft has already pivoted into AI agents, it means their Copilots are not doing great. In fact, even Bing is losing marketshare to Google of late. Even Google Cloud is growing way faster than Azure at this point.

Microsoft trying to figure out how much equity they deserve in OpenAI is also going to mean Sam Altman gets effectively a cut of their shares as his own to appease new investors and more traditional VC models that want a CEO/founder to have skin in the game. No wonder C-executives have left OpenAI in a traffic jam!

Github Copilot Spark is something they have wanted to build for a while. Users who know how to program, can also open up the code generated by Spark and tweak it, toggling between coding and prompts. It makes sense, given how innovative some of the AI coding startups are.

Even with a massive head-start, it’s not clear where Github Copilot will fall in the big picture of tools coders actually use. So effectively, from Copilot Workspace to multi-file editing to code review, security autofix, and the CLI, Github says it will bring multi-model choice across many of GitHub Copilot’s surface areas and functions soon.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet demonstrates high proficiency with complex and multi-step coding tasks, handling everything from legacy app updates to code refactoring and feature development. Most developers are likely using Claude, Github Copilot and possibly Cursor too. So it just makes sense for 2025.

Software development with AI is slowly becoming more capable and the role of junior developers is changing. For all the promises of frontier models and chatbots, or the pivot to AI agents, the relationship of AI and coding seems the most secure. Microsoft tried to pretend that Copilots was a big deal, but they just reskinned GPT-4 so now what. It’s clear that Microsoft and Google have mostly failed to integrate Generative AI into their products, even as Apple Intelligence takes a more cautious and methodical approach.

Microsoft-owned GitHub was the first to launch its AI tool called Copilot in 2021, Microsoft using the Copilot name was unfortunate. However as expensive as it is to run Github Copilot it does seem to have reached some level of scale and revenue for Microsoft, though it’s not clear how much. GitHub announced last week that Copilot now has more than 1 million paid subscribers, although that’s actually what they were saying one year ago!

Github Universe in 2024 basically just said, we’re going with Claude too. It must have been awkward for Sam Altman to hear that. The GitHub Copilot Workspace needs to evolve. Not all frontier models are created equally.