Building with GitHub Copilot

From Code Hosting to AI-First Development Platform: The Story of GitHub and Copilot

In 2008, a handful of developers - Tom Preston-Werner, Chris Wanstrath, P.J. Hyett, and Scott Chacon - quietly launched GitHub, a web-based platform built on Git. It began as a humble code-sharing site and quickly became the heart of modern open-source collaboration. By the early 2010s, GitHub had eclipsed incumbents like SourceForge and Google Code, hosting millions of repositories and attracting a global developer community.

Microsoft acquired GitHub in 2018, a move that signaled its ambition but raised eyebrows: a closed-source giant taking ownership of the world's largest hub for open-source code.

Under Satya Nadella's leadership, Microsoft had already set a clear course: to transform into an AI-first company. GitHub became a natural proving ground for that vision. The platform retained its autonomy within Microsoft for years before fully integrating into the company's CoreAI division. Besides the financial backing, GitHub also gained access to Microsoft's scale, resources, and AI research.

The strategy came to fruition in 2021 when GitHub unveiled Copilot, an AI-powered pair programmer built on OpenAI's Codex model. Copilot could autocomplete functions, suggest tests, and steer developers toward better solutions. What began as a collaborative code host had matured into an AI-first development environment. Microsoft's strategy wasn't just about the cloud or enterprise, but about reimagining the very act of writing software.

GitHub Copilot was created through a collaboration between three entities: GitHub, Azure, and OpenAI. It remains one of the most impactful demonstrations of how deep learning can be applied to everyday software engineering and development.