- More than 11,000 GitHub pull requests had ads inserted by Copilot
- Developers were unhappy with the way they were implemented
- GitHub has confirmed that this was a bug, and it has no plans to advertise this way
GitHub has reversed its decision to insert ads for its AI tools in Copilot-generated and edited pull requests after backlash from developers.
Australian developer Zach Manson explained how, after a colleague used Copilot to fix a typo in a pull request, the Microsoft-owned platform had also inserted promotional messages for not only its own tools, but also third parties such as Recast.
Manson was just one of many developers to complain about this perceived advertising — more than 11,000 pull requests contained similar Copilot-inserted ads without user awareness or consent.
The article continues below
GitHub has stopped inserting ads into pull requests
In addition to the unwanted ads, developers were also unhappy with GitHub’s execution – ads looked like they were written by developers, not inserted by AI.
One of GitHub’s later changes included these so-called ‘tips’ on any pull request where Copilot was mentioned, but previously they were just inserted when Copilot created the pull requests.
Manson quoted a separate comment from Cory Doctorow on TikTok’s demise: “This is how platforms die: First, they’re good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally they abuse those business customers to get all the value back for themselves. Then they die.”
GitHub has since admitted that it made the “wrong judgment call” and has subsequently disabled those hints in pull requests.
“GitHub has not and does not plan to include ads on the platform,” Martin Woodward, VP of Developer Relations has since explained.
“We recently identified a programming logic issue in the GitHub Copilot coding agent that caused a ‘product hint’, including a third-party proposal, to be displayed incorrectly in a pull request comment.
“Our goal was to share new ways to use Copilot encoding agent, and in this case we highlighted our integration with Raycast as part of a broader set of product tips… We’ve removed Copilot agent tips from all pull requests going forward.”
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can too follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, video unboxings, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
