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As a programmer, you know that coding can be a time-consuming process, and you know that speed is of the essence. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to speed up the process and help you work faster and more efficiently?
Thankfully, there are several AI pair programmer assistants out there that can help you do just that!
In this post, we will take a look at some of them and see what they have to offer.
What is the Best AI Coding Assistant?
Here are our top picks for the best AI coding assistants:
1. ChatGPT
Overview:
ChatGPT is OpenAI’s latest chatbot that’s been trending and taking the world by storm. An AI based on open-source training data, this coding assistant is capable of writing code without any reference to existing code. It even writes computer programs from scratch—although only simple ones.
Known for its chatbot function and natural language processing for understanding words, ChatGPT can even be used as a coding assistant.
This highly flexible AI chatbot can answer your toughest coding questions when you’re feeling stumped.
And that’s because it’s able to generate code!
All you have to do is to insert a code block for reproducibility and ask ChatGPT using your natural human text language. Watch as ChatGPT debugs and finds your answer within just seconds!
What I really like about using this machine learning-based coding assistant is that it answers in a clear, natural tone that I can understand really well.
Moreover, ChatGPT can even reply with a neatly formatted code block as well!
This can potentially save a lot of time Googling for a solution or searching on Stack Overflow! Of course, you’ll have to do some checks over it, but this saves a lot of time from debugging frustrating errors.
Just take a look at one of the outputs it gave me below!
Really impressive, right?
Also, if you’re stuck on a certain computing concept, you can even ask ChatGPT for clarification! Check out this question I asked about OOP below.
You can also choose to do AI code completion as well since you can provide an incomplete function and have ChatGPT complete it. However, this might not be that intuitive to copy and paste into their interface.
Key Features:
- Currently free to use
- Convenient for debugging simple errors
- Provides specific outputs
- Answers questions in both natural language and code
- Can answer questions beyond coding problems
Bottomline:
ChatGPT is one of the best AI coding assistants and AI code completion tools to have for any coder out there! This is one of AI’s latest and most impressive feats, and you should really be taking advantage of it as much as possible.
You can treat ChatGPT as a senior developer or data scientist that can help you to debug all your simple problems. Therefore, I’d really recommend this to any junior coders and beginners who might need an extra helping hand.
Overall, ChatGPT is an excellent choice that is cost-effective and flexible enough to fit multiple uses from a programmer’s perspective. Although it won’t be able to replace human programmers completely, ChatGPT is an excellent next-best option.
2. GitHub Copilot
Overview:
GitHub Copilot is an AI code completion tool that’s been popular in the computer science field recently for its helpful code suggestion feature. This AI pair programming tool is based on open-source code found on GitHub, which is used to provide code suggestions.
Built upon a machine learning model, it reads contextual code and provides real-time feedback and recommendations through suggested code so you can avoid errors, and it also offers a number of helpful tutorials.
Generated code is based on the style of your project and is contextually relevant to the entire program you’re writing.
Being the first to come up with an AI code completion tool beyond just a general-purpose language model, GitHub Copilot is known among many software developers for its intuitive integrations with their development workflow.
Key Features:
- Helps you make changes to entire functions based on GitHub Copilot’s suggestion
- Includes helpful tutorials
- Available across many popular code editors like Visual Studio, VS Code, Neovim, and JetBrains IDEs
- Uses the OpenAI Codex to create code
- Based on code found on GitHub
Bottom Line:
GitHub Copilot works as a great cost-effective AI-powered coding assistant that can help you make changes to your code more easily. It’s also developed by one of the most loved open-source computing companies, GitHub, which makes things much more reliable.
If you’re looking for a free option to code out your next few computer programs, GitHub Copilot is definitely worth checking out!
3. Tabnine
Overview:
Tabnine is a GitHub Copilot alternative that’s targeted at software developers. Tabnine specializes in full-function AI code completion, which can be pretty useful for efficiently typing in boilerplate code.
Based on a deep learning models, “Deep TabNine,” this assistant can predict what you intend to code and provide suggestions.
Through the use of machine learning, Tabnine also learns about your coding habits and patterns over time to fit your needs, so you’ll be coding much more efficiently the more you use it!
It’s also available for the most popular languages used by developers worldwide.
Here’s a good video demo of Tabnine in action:
Key Features:
- Full-function code completions
- Learns about your coding style and patterns
- Available for a dozen programming languages
- Available on many code editors like Visual Studio Code
Bottom Line:
Tabnine is an intelligent code completion tool if you require some AI-assisted coding to code faster using full-function AI code completion.
If you’re fine with getting a paid option for a premium product that learns your coding habits over time, Tabnine is definitely worth checking out!
Having a reliable AI for software development like Tabnine would make you more efficient with your coding needs.
4. MutableAI
Overview:
MutableAI is another great option for developers who use boilerplate code often and would like them to be autocompleted.
Powered by AI, MutableAI can complete your code using just natural words. With
One feature I really love about MutableAI is the ability to clean up code and organize them into groups!
Key Features:
- Write code using natural human text
- Cleans organizes code into groups
- Runs on Jupyter, VS Code, and GitHub
Bottom Line:
MutableAI is perfect for programmers who prefer a high-level style of programming using natural tone. Its Automatic Code Organization feature is a real-time-saver too!
If you’re looking for a tool to help you clean up and organize your code, MutableAI is definitely worth checking out!
5. Cogram
Overview:
Cogram is a Structured Query Language (SQL) code generation tool designed for data professionals. Cogram allows you to generate relevant high-quality code through the use of a natural language interface.
Built with an interface of a SQL code editor, Cogram has a familiar SQL environment that’s perfect for data scientists and data analysts.
Through AI-assisted coding, Cogram enables you to code faster than writing manually.
Key Features:
- Designed specifically for data scientists and data analysts
- Has support for all major databases (SQLite, PostgreSQL, Amazon Redshift)
- Requires zero knowledge of SQL to generate code (only natural language is required)
Bottom Line:
Cogram’s zero SQL knowledge AI-assisted coding is a must-have for data analysts who run SQL queries often and would like to write code faster.
The SQL queries written by Cogram are not just correct but also output better code compared to manual coding.
However, Cogram’s artificial intelligence tool is not 100% right, and you might still need to debug data.
6. Amazon CodeWhisperer
Overview:
If you’re looking to build applications fast, you can try out Amazon CodeWhisperer.
Amazon CodeWhisperer is an ML-powered tool that can make intelligent code completions. All you need to do is provide some code and comments and Amazon CodeWhisperer will do the rest!
The best part about Amazon CodeWhisperer is that there are integrations across AWS applications directly into your integrated development environment (IDE).
Key Features:
- Developed by Amazon
- Integration with Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Integrated within your IDE
Bottom Line:
Amazon CodeWhisperer enables you to code faster and create application within a shorter period of time. This AI-powered code assistant will improve your overall workflow across all applications within AWS too!
If you’re within the AWS ecosystem, I’d highly recommend giving it a try! However, I would only recommend this for advanced data science tasks.
7. Anaconda Assistant
Anaconda Assistant is another great AI-driven tool that’s useful for data analysis and programming in Python.
Built into the Anaconda environment, users can use this new AI assistant to conduct instant data analysis of a new dataset, removing a large portion of effort in exploratory data analysis. Moreover, the assistant can also be used for generating code in machine-learning applications.
Key Features:
- Runs in Anaconda Notebook Environment
- Able to ask assistant to debug code
- It can be used to ask for solutions and concepts in a natural language
- Able to generate charts from common Python packages
Bottom Line:
The Anaconda Assistant is the perfect coding companion for anyone who works in data science or analytics. This is also great for those who use the Anaconda environment often as well, since this tools is all within the same familiar coding environment.
Related Questions
What are AI coding assistants?
An AI coding assistant is a tool that helps programmers code faster by providing suggestions or autocompleting code through artificial intelligence. Some of the best AI coding assistants include GitHub Copilot, Kite, Tabnine, and MutableAI.
What is an AI pair programmer?
An AI pair programmer is a tool for generating and suggesting code to help developers code more efficiently. These tools work in similar manners to human pair programmers, who typically conduct code reviews. Code generated by AI pair programmers is not meant to replace humans but to assist in the tedious code review process.
What is the best AI coding assistant?
The best AI for coding overall is Tabnine. Tabnine helps programmers code faster by providing context-based suggestions to complete code through artificial intelligence and machine learning.
What are the best AI code generators?
Tabnine, GitHub Copilot, and Kite are the best AI code generators. They are the most popular code generators, with support for many programming languages and IDEs used by developers.
Are AI coders better than human coders?
AI coders are not better than human coders. Although AI coders are able to write code faster and more accurately than human coders, they require human proofreading. Human coders can understand the context and meaning of code better than AI as well.
Are AI coding assistants worth it?
AI coding assistants are worth it. AI coding assistants can help developers code faster while improving code quality. Time-consuming and repetitive programming of boilerplate code can be cut down to speed up the development process.
Is there a downside to using AI coding assistants?
There is a downside to using AI coding assistants, and that is you might become reliant on them. Over time, you might find it difficult to code without the assistance of an AI tool. Another downside is that AI tools are not 100% accurate, and you might still need to debug your code.
Is there an AI that can generate code?
There is no AI that can write code fully as of now. However, there are AI coding assistants that can provide suggestions or autocomplete code for you.
However, these assistants are not able to code at a competitive programming level.
Can AI write code itself?
AI can write code itself. There are currently no AI programs that can code independently without human proofreading. However, AI coding assistants are intelligent enough to complete code and understand natural language to write functions for programmers.
Can AI Coding Assistants Write Python Code?
AI coding assistants code in Python. Most of the popular AI-powered tools used by developers provide support for programming in Python. However, they are not good enough to replace human Python programmers.
Final Thoughts
These are our top picks for the best AI coding assistants. Keep these helpful code-completing tools in mind the next time you’re feeling bogged down by a project!
I hope these AI coding assistants will help in improving your coding efficiency!
Thanks for reading!
