GitHub unveils GitHub Spark for creating web apps, multi-model Copilot & Xcode integration

At the GitHub Universe '24 developer conference, GitHub unveiled advancements in its Copilot-powered developer platform, now offering a multi-model approach. Developers can choose from top models such as Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro, and OpenAI's GPT-4o, o1-preview, and o1-mini. This flexibility allows developers to switch models during Copilot Chat interactions for optimal use case alignment, or rely on Copilot's default model.

GitHub also introduced GitHub Spark, an AI-native tool for creating personalized micro apps called “sparks” using natural language. Sparks integrate AI features and external data without cloud resource management.

The company highlighted its AI-native, agentic developer experience, emphasizing developer choice and control. This includes multi-file editing for Copilot in Visual Studio Code, forthcoming general availability of Copilot extensions for all users in early 2025, and public preview of Copilot capabilities in Xcode. Additional features include Copilot-powered code feedback and customizable Copilot Chat responses in VS Code and Visual Studio, tailored to personal and organizational coding preferences. Developers can also incorporate contextual data from repositories and web sources through Bing integration for a comprehensive AI-native experience on GitHub.