NEW DELHI: Microsoft-owned developer platform GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke envisions AI breaking down language barriers and fostering a more inclusive coding environment, empowering non-English developers to make strides in contributing to the open-source coding community. Native developers are poised to make significant contributions to the world of programming.
“AI is a great leveller. It’s going to make it easier to navigate an existing code base without being fluent in English, as you can leverage Copilot in Hindi or Kannada,” he told TOI in an interaction on the sidelines of ET World Leaders Forum on Saturday.
“On the one hand, I see a rise in embracing Indian or non-English languages as an entry point into the world of coding. In many instances, you’re not learning English and you’re not going to read a lot of English documentation. But you’re just going to ask the AI assistant in the language of your comfort.” He also said that AI is going to democratise non-English developers to contribute to coding.
“AI enables developers in countries where they’re not comfortable speaking in English. We see that often, for instance, in cultures like Japan, where there may be a lack of fluency. These developers want to contribute back, but they face language barriers. AI will democratise that collaboration model even more so than open source has already done,” he said, adding that this democratisation will tap into a vast pool of untapped coding talent to drive technological progress on a global scale.
Dohmke grew up in Berlin in a suburb called Marzahn on East side of the Wall, before it fell. When he grew up, there wasn’t much software back then, but today you can’t imagine a world without software. The complexity of software systems has increased compared to early 90s. He proudly calls GitHub as the largest team sport on Earth.
“It’s one of few things on this planet where we collaborate with each other without cultural boundaries,” he said.
GitHub has onboarded an additional 2.2 million developers in India, bringing the total number of Indian developers to 15.4 million. The momentum is palpable, with the Indian developer base now having grown three-fold from 5.8 million in 2021.
The developer community in India on GitHub is projected to surpass that of the US, currently at 21 million, by 2027.
“It’s an era of great convergence. India is going to become the largest nation of software developers in 2027 and with rise of AI and those two movements coming together, it will create a big economic opportunity for India.”
A GitHub report showed that developers who used GitHub Copilot completed tasks significantly faster – 55% faster than developers who didn’t use GitHub Copilot.
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