Google Colab will soon introduce AI coding features using Google’s most advanced family of code models, Codey.
Shrestha Basu Mallick
Senior Product Manager, Google Labs
Since 2017, Google Colab has been the easiest way to start programming in Python. Over 7 million people, including students, already use Colab to access these powerful computing resources, free of charge, without having to install or manage any software. It’s a great tool for machine learning, data analysis, and education — and now it’s getting even better with advances in AI.
Today, we’re announcing that Colab will soon add AI coding features like code completions, natural language to code generation and even a code-assisting chatbot. Colab will use Codey, a family of code models built on PaLM 2, which was just announced at I/O last week. Codey was fine-tuned on a large dataset of high quality, permissively licensed code from external sources to improve performance on coding tasks. Plus, the versions of Codey being used to power Colab have been customized especially for Python and for Colab-specific uses.
Access to powerful coding features
Colab users in the United States will get first access to our Codey models inside Colab, which dramatically increase programming speed, quality, and comprehension. Our first features will focus on code generation.
Natural language to code generation helps you generate larger blocks of code, writing whole functions from comments or prompts. The goal here is to reduce the need for writing repetitive code, so you can focus on the more interesting parts of programming and data science. Eligible users in Colab will see a new "Generate" button in their notebooks, allowing them to enter any text prompt to generate code.
For eligible paid users, as you type, you'll see autocomplete suggestions.
An integrated chatbot makes getting help easier than ever
We’re also bringing the helpfulness of a chatbot directly into Colab. Soon, you'll be able to ask questions directly in Colab like, "How do I import data from Google Sheets?" or "How do I filter a Pandas DataFrame?"
Democratizing machine learning for everyone
Anyone with an internet connection can access Colab, and use it free of charge. Millions of students use Colab every month to learn Python programming and machine learning. Under-resourced groups everywhere access Colab free of charge, accessing high-powered GPUs for machine learning applications.
We have lots more features and improvements coming soon that will make Colab an even more helpful, integrated experience in your data and ML workflows.
Access to these features will roll out gradually in the coming months, starting with our paid subscribers in the U.S. and then expanding into the free-of-charge tier. We'll also expand into other geographies over time. Please follow @googlecolab on Twitter for announcements about new releases and launches.
