If you have been coding for some time, you might have heard someone jokingly say “modern coding is basically just a copy paste of someone’s work and pray that it will work out” and while it might be true to some degree, it is a bad practice to just accept a random code that you found on the internet at face value.
More often than not it is highly recommended that programmers do their due diligence to learn the copied code and tweak them in the most efficient way possible.
With an AI code generator now existing, however, programmers could rejoice as this AI is designed to help alleviate some of the burdens of looking for a possible code on the internet and in fact, the AI makes the process even more streamlined.
Therefore, here are our four recommendations for AI code generators that might be worth taking a look at.
1. Copilot
GitHub’s Copilot might be one of the most popular AI code generators in recent years.
Released just only in late 2021, it has become a go-to by programmers due to how helpful it is.
Branded as an “AI programmer companion”, GitHub Copilot is an AI pair programmer that helps you write code faster and with less work as it draws context from comments and code to suggest individual lines and whole functions instantly.
Copilot is available as an extension for Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, Neovim, and the JetBrains suite of integrated development environments (IDEs).
As for providing suggestion code, while it accepts almost every programming language, it works best on certain languages like Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, and Go.
GitHub offers free trials for you to try out its Copilot AI and if it suits your needs, a $10/month subscription is available for individual use and $19/month for businesses.
2. Amazon CodeWhisperer
The corporate giant, Amazon, through its AWS subsidiary, has also developed a similar companion tool to Copilot.
CodeWhisperer was officially released on 13 April 2023 which makes them quite young compared to GitHub’s Copilot however that does not mean that it is in an inferior position.
The AI currently supports programming languages such as Python, Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, and C#, however, it can also generate suggestions for Go, Rust, Kotlin, Scala, Ruby, PHP, SQL, C, C++, and Shell Scripting.
If you are already in the AWS ecosystem, then CodeWhisperer might work best as it is designed to be fully optimised for AWS APIs.
Amazon’s CodeWhisperer is available for free for individual use, however, it costs $19/user/month for professionals.
3. OpenAI Codex
Codex is OpenAI’s attempt to create a GPT-3 AI focused on generating code in collaboration with GitHub.
What differs between Codex and GitHub’s Copilot despite sharing the same concept is that Codex is tailored to respond better when being given a natural language prompt.
This means that users can issue commands in English and Codex will produce working code of that, making coding even more accessible.
OpenAI points out that Codex works best on Python however it does not limit the possibility of it also being capable in other programming languages.
Codex is available for free in private beta via its own API.
4. Textero
Textero might never come to mind when talking about companion AI that generates codes considering it marketed its AI as an essay helper for students.
While it might be true that its AI generate code is not something to be relied upon on a professional scale, it can still be useful to fulfil assignments for students who study programming.
Its code generator AI generator service is completely free to use the only requirement is to sign up for their website.
Bottom line
A “copy and paste code” has never been this easy with AI code generator now exists, and while it is far from perfect, it helps streamlined programmers’ workflow far better than it used to be.
Each of our four recommendations; Copilot, CodeWhisperer, Codex, and Textero’s code generator, while it may seem to compete in the same subject, has its own market for its products.
In summary, if you are looking for an AI programming companion and already use AWS services in building the project’s foundation, then CodeWhisperer might work best for you.
If you prefer something that is already more mature then perhaps GitHub’s Copilot is the best pick.
And for those who are thinking of just experimenting or completing their assignments, Codex and Textero is a solid pick as it is a fully free AI code generator.
