Copilot causes popular projects to become more popular

The author here is spot-on. The three most valuable functions of Copilot are:

- Pulling from your own code to match objects, keys, functions, etc.

- Repeating a pattern that you're obviously typing.

- Getting the right syntax for everyday stuff.

Idea #1 is that Copilot does a great job of suggesting and filling-in things with the names of stuff you've already written. It's not 100%, but it is much faster to recognize the correct item when Copilot has pre-filled it than it is to type that item.

Help #2 is that Copilot is very savvy about repeating a pattern that you're typing. You need not explain it with comments. If you are "doing something" to two of your objects in a row, Copilot will suggest the third. If you just added a CSS class to something, Copilot suggests that class when you start to type in the CSS definitions. Stuff like that is just amazingly helpful.

Finally, Copilot almost always gets typical syntax correct for JS and TS, in my experience. This, combined with the other two abilities, is tantamount to mind-reading! It's quite amazing to see Copilot quickly suggest a long line or series of code that you were just about to write yourself! Again, the eye can recognize that suggested code (and the patterns within it) much faster that you can type them.

The product has been an enormous help to me and I gladly pay for it. I have no doubt that it has reduced my time to enter code and removed many syntax errors and other dumb mistakes along the way.

None of this, BTW, could possibly infringe in any way on any one else's codebase and there is no risk of anyone suing me for using an AI to repeat my own code. This is the very best use case for Copilot. Did it learn to recognize those patterns from other people's code? Yes. But it isn't copying their code. It's reproducing the same pattern with your variable and function names, etc.