The feature of TabNine that uses the "public" dataset is optional. It can also provide completions only based on local code. That optionality is important.

Also, tabnine has a smaller scope; you type "var " and it suggests a variable name and possibly the rest of the line, like autocomplete has been doing for decades. Perfectly normal.

My understanding of copilot is that you can type "// here's a high-level description of my problem" and it'll fill out entire functions, dozens of lines. The scope is much grander.