A Partnership Between Google And Ai Startup Replit Takes On Microsoft's Github

Alphabet Inc.'s Google has announced a collaboration to integrate its artificial intelligence language models with software from startup Replit Inc. that assists computer programmers in writing code, to compete with a similar product from Microsoft Corp.'s GitHub and OpenAI.

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Replit's Ghostwriter, which has 20 million users, will employ Google's language-generation AI to boost its capacity to propose code blocks, build programs, and respond to developer inquiries. Replit will employ a customized blend of technologies that cover distinct functions such as conversation and code development, according to Google Cloud Vice President June Yang.

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Replit previously created the product using its own AI. Replit Chief Executive Offier Amjad Masad stated in an interview that Google "has far superior technology than most people realize." Replit will also extend its usage of Google's cloud services, hoping that its link with the tech giant will help it win over larger corporate customers – for the time being, Replit's clientele is mostly individual developers and startups. As part of the collaboration, Google will also share Replit's software.

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Microsoft-owned GitHub debuted Copilot last year, which recommends blocks of code while a software developer types, speeding up the process and automating routine or fussy coding jobs. The software is built on OpenAI's language-generating AI, which has garnered 5,000 corporate customers and hundreds of thousands of programmers. This week, GitHub announced the addition of chat features for solving software development questions. The cloud-computing division of Amazon.com Inc. also sells a tool in this category called Code Whisperer.

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The partnership announced on Tuesday is the latest in a string of competing AI product launches and enhancements from Google, Microsoft, and Microsoft-backed OpenAI since the firm first attracted public attention last year with the wider release of its ChatGPT chatbot.

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For Ghostwriter to "help you from end-to-end write the code, write the tests, deploy the app, review the app, and collaborate with coworkers," Replit wants to "improve on GitHub's Copilot" by giving a greater understanding of all the various pieces of software a developer uses to write code. Masad stated, "We have enormous respect for the Copilot team, but the way it works, it's almost like you're talking to the AI over the phone - you're yelling your keystrokes and it's shouting back potential solutions."

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Replit, a San Francisco-based company founded in 2016 by Masad and Haya Odeh, has garnered more than $100 million in funding and counts Shopify Inc. and Stripe Inc. as clients. Investors in Replit include Bloomberg Beta, a division of Bloomberg LP.

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While ChatGPT and the Dall-E picture production tool have sparked consumer and corporate interest in the newest generation of AI, interest in coding applications began to rise even earlier. Copilot, one of the first extensively used commercial products based on OpenAI's GPT-3 technology for producing text, debuted on GitHub in 2021 with previews.

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Because there is a very rapid and simple method to be able to measure the advantages, "code generation and coding help, in general, is very much top of mind for many," Yang added. Replit is not the only AI coding tool Google hopes to collaborate with, according to her.

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