AI tools in programming

Scientific workflows: Tools and Tips 🛠️

Dr. Selina Baldauf

2024-01-18

What is this lecture series?

Scientific workflows: Tools and Tips 🛠️

đź“… Every 3rd Thursday đź•“ 4-5 p.m. đź“Ť Webex

Motivation

  • AI tools assist programmers with
    • Coding
    • Debugging
    • Learning
    • …
  • Higher productivity and efficiency
  • More motivation

Overview of tools

  • Browser-based chat bots (ChatGPT, Bard, …)
    • General-purpose
  • Data-analysis tools (Data analyst GPT, RTutor, …)
    • Upload data and ask questions about it
    • Download the code that was used for the results
  • Integrated AI tools (GitHub Copilot, Codium AI, …)
    • Integrated directly in programming environment
    • Real-time suggestions, chat, debugging, …

Today

  • Focus on integrated AI tools

    • How to use GitHub Copilot to
      • Speed up your coding
      • Improve your code
      • Learn

  • Concerns when using AI tools

  • Main goal: Motivate you to try out tools and find out what fits your workflow

  • Find other tools on the website

Now You



âť“ What is your main programming language

âť“ Which IDE (programming environment) do you use

âť“ Which AI tools for programming did you already try

Integrated AI tools for programming

Mainly GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot

  • Cloud-based AI tool by Github and OpenAI
  • Model based on GPT-4 and OpenAI’s Codex
    • Specifically trained on source code
  • Basic idea: Plugin for your IDE to integrate Copilot
  • Works best for well-represented languages (Python, JS, …)

How to get GitHub Copilot

See lecture website for step-by-step guide and more information.

It’s really easy, but you need:

  • GitHub Account
  • Active GH Copilot subscription (10$ per month)
    • Get it for free as an academic with an educational account
  • IDE that supports Copilot
    • Full support: Visual Studio (Code), Vim, Neovim, JetBrains IDEs (e.g. PyCharm)
    • Limited support: RStudio, ?

Using GitHub Copilot

Demo of the main features and use cases

Inline code suggestions

  • Copilot tries to predict what you want to do next
  • Suggestions are based on the context
    • Previous code
    • Comments
    • Variable and function names
    • …

Get better suggestions

  • Provide context
    • Open other files
    • Add top level comments explaining the purpose of the script
    • Name variables and functions properly
    • Copy-paste sample code and delete it later
  • Be consistent
    • “Garbage in, garbage out”
    • Have a nice and consistent coding style

Nice side effect of using Copilot: More good-practice coding

Chat

  • Ask and give commands regarding:
    • Highlighted lines of code
    • The whole script or project
  • Preset commands starting with /
    • /fix: fix problems in your code
    • /doc: get documentation
    • /explain: explain this code
    • /test: write unit tests
    • /new: create new projects or scripts with code

/fix with in-line chat

/fix with chat in the sidebar

/doc with specific documentation standard

/explain

Translate code

Codium AI as an alternative

  • No inline code suggestions
  • Great functionality to
    • Explain code
    • Suggestsions improve and enhance code
    • Generate tests
  • Not in RStudio, but in VS code and many other IDEs
  • Free for personal use (for now)

Concerns to consider

  • Privacy
    • Chose whether your prompts and suggestions will be used by Github (Github -> Seetings -> Copilot -> Policies)
  • Plagiarism
    • Block suggestions matching public code (Github -> Seetings -> Copilot -> Policies)
  • Ethical concerns
    • For-profit tool trained on open-source
  • Environmental concerns
    • Water and enery usage

Usage guidelines

  • No definite guidelines, but see examples on lecture website
  • Responsibility
    • You are responsible for your scientific output
    • Stay critical, double-check
  • Transparency
    • Make clear for which tasks you used which AI
  • Know relevant guidelines
    • Journals
    • Your university
  • Don’t use AI in exams

Summary

  • AI tools for programming can be extremely useful
  • Try different tools and find the ones you like
  • Think about concerns
  • Learn about relevant guidelines
  • Development is fast, so keep up
  • Check out the lecture website if you want to get started

Next lecture

Topic t.b.a.


đź“… 15th February đź•“ 4-5 p.m. đź“Ť Webex

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📧 For topic suggestions and/or feedback send me an email

Thank you for your attention :)

Questions?



Thanks to Anne Lewerentz for support with the preparation.

References

References

Guidelines