github – Tech News

GitHub will start charging Copilot users based on their actual AI usage

GitHub has announced that it will be shifting to a usage-based billing model for its GitHub Copilot AI service starting on June 1. The move is pitched as a way to “better align pricing with actual usage” and a necessary step to keep Copilot financially sustainable amid surging demand for limited AI computing resources. These kinds of pricing moves could become more common as major AI companies try to convert growing revenue and high demand for their services into the kinds of profits that have so far been illusory. Amid an ongoing shortage of computing resources to meet that demand, the days of subsidized, subscription-based usage discounts for the most voracious users of AI may be coming to an end.
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/04/github-will-start-charging-copilot-users-based-on-their-actual-ai-usage/

GitHub Users File a Class-Action Lawsuit Against Microsoft for Training an AI Tool With Their Code

IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES

GitHub Copilot, which was launched in June, suggests code and functions to GitHub users in real time. Copilot is powered by Codex, an AI system that was created by OpenAI and licensed to Microsoft. According to OpenAI, Codex was trained on “millions of public repositories” and is “an instance of transformative fair use.” However, open-source programmers on GitHub disagree, claiming that Codex has violated their open-source licenses, which only allow non-commercial redistribution and modification of the code and often have restrictions including a requirement to preserve the name of the authors.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvm3k5/github-users-file-a-class-action-lawsuit-against-microsoft-for-training-an-ai-tool-with-their-code

GitHub is back online after a two-hour outage

Microsoft-owned GitHub experienced a more than two-hour long outage today, affecting thousands or potentially millions of developers that rely on its many services. GitHub started experiencing issues at around 3:45PM ET, with Git operations, API requests, GitHub actions, packages, pages, and pull requests all affected.

GitHub is now home to more than 73 million developers that rely on the service for version control via Git and hosting for software development. GitHub is a large code repository that has become very popular with developers and companies hosting entire projects and code on the service. Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and many other big tech companies use GitHub.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/27/22805076/github-down-outage-service-issues