Github Copilot suggesting links

August 02, 2023 #copilot

A potentially very useful but probably unintended and unpolished feature of GitHub Copilot is that it can suggest related links. That is, if you paste a link, then on a new line type https:// and wait for a second, Copilot often suggests a link or two. The results, at the moment, aren’t great.

Here are some examples that are representative of my experience so far.

Amazon

It seems to work well for Amazon links some (~30%) of the time.

StackOverflow

StackOverflow recommendations only look correct. For example:

Original https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43833049/how-to-make-fixed-content-go-above-ios-keyboard
Not entirely related https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1145850/how-to-get-height-of-iphone-keyboard

The link looks convincing, and the issue is kind of similar. But not really.

Besides, the slug at the end of the URL is made-up.

I’ve noticed this on more than one occasion: it generates a valid link, but changes the slug to make it look like it’s more related than it is.

HackerNews

Original https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=rognjen
Completely random, but it’s a comment not a profile https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27847800

Another one:

Original https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35809807

Not bad https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35809807
It generated the snippet above, including the comment 😅

Copilot seems to know the structure of HackerNews links, but does not know any of the content. And since the links do not have a slug, there’s nothing it can use.