GitLab’s Duo Chat: AI-Powered Interactive Experience for Developers Now in Beta
GitLab, a leading DevOps platform, has introduced Duo Chat, an AI-powered interactive experience for developers that is now available in beta. Duo Chat is an addition to the existing Duo features, which were unveiled earlier this year and aimed to enhance developers’ productivity by providing issue summarization, code suggestions, vulnerability explanations, and more.
The goal of Duo Chat is to enable developers to interact with a bot similar to ChatGPT, offering a more interactive experience to access the existing Duo features. GitLab plans to integrate many of the existing Duo capabilities into the chat between the beta version and the general availability launch.
During an interview at KubeCon, David deSanto, GitLab’s Chief Product Officer, revealed that GitLab has transitioned its chat backend to Anthropic’s Claude. This move was surprising considering their partnership with Google for other AI features, including the code completion service. DeSanto explained that they decided to make the shift based on the extensive context required for chat within GitLab. Anthropic’s Claude, with its 100k context window, facilitates obtaining and providing better information.
In addition, GitLab has partnered with Oracle for cloud-based GPUs, showcasing their cloud-agnostic approach. By collaborating with multiple cloud providers like Google, Oracle, and Anthropic, GitLab aims to provide the best solutions to its users.
Currently, Duo Chat offers various code-related chat capabilities, such as code explanation and refactoring. Test case generation, vulnerability explanation, and additional features will be added soon.
Throughout the testing phase, GitLab recognized the significance of context for optimal results in the chat experience. Unlike other players in the market, GitLab can access all code, even if it’s not open in the integrated development environment (IDE). The larger context windows enable easy tracking of previous conversations, enhancing the overall user experience.
Interestingly, GitLab observed that experienced developers may not always appreciate code suggestions due to noise. Instead, they prefer accessing AI tools via Duo Chat. DeSanto noted that inline code completion appeals more to associated developers, while senior developers gravitate towards code generation in the chat. The reasoning behind this preference is that senior developers often prefer guidance or refactoring suggestions rather than having their typing predicted.
GitLab’s Duo Chat advances their mission of providing developers with powerful AI tools to boost productivity. The continued development and integration of AI features demonstrate GitLab’s commitment to supporting developers throughout their workflow, from code creation to issue resolution.
As GitLab progresses towards the general availability launch of Duo Chat, developers can anticipate an even more interactive and valuable experience, solidifying GitLab’s position as a leader in the DevOps space.
Keywords: GitLab, Duo Chat, AI-Powered Interactive Experience, Developers, Beta, ChatGPT-like experience, AI features, Productivity, David deSanto, Chat Backend, Anthropic’s Claude, Cloud-based GPUs, Code Suggestions, Code Generation, DevOps Platform.
