Natural language data in software engineering and the rise of GitHub Copilot

Programming has always been a mixture of science, engineering, and creativity. Creating new programs and being able to instruct computers to do something has always been something that was considered worth paying for – that’s how all programmers make their living. There have been attempts to automate programming and to support smaller tasks – for example, provide programmers with suggestions on how to use a specific function or library method.

Good programmers, however, can make programs that last and that are readable for others. They can also make reliable programs that work without maintenance for a long period. The best programmers are the ones who can solve very difficult tasks and follow the principles and best practices of software engineering.

In 2020, something happened – GitHub Copilot entered the stage and showed that automated tools, based on large language models...