San Francisco, July 21 (IANS) Microsoft-owned open-source software platform GitHub has announced that the Copilot Chat is now available as a "limited" public beta for all business users on Visual Studio and VS Code.

"This new evolution turns GitHub Copilot into a context-aware conversational assistant right in the IDE, allowing developers to execute some of the most complex tasks with simple prompts," the company said in a blogpost on Thursday.

"Every developer on your team, from the least to the most experienced, will be able to build entire applications or debug vast arrays of code in a matter of minutes instead of a matter of days." According to the company, the Copilot Chat is contextually aware of the code a developer has typed, what error messages are shown, and it's deeply embedded into the integrated development environment (IDE).

Key features of the GitHub Copilot Chat include providing real-time guidance tailored to specific coding challenges, coding analysis that can break down complex concepts, and "simple troubleshooting" that identifies issues.

"We found that generative AI tools like GitHub Copilot have the potential to increase global GDP (gross domestic product) by $1.5 trillion by 2030 by driving significant productivity gains," the company said.

Meanwhile, last week, the open-source software platform had announced the public beta of passwordless authentication on its official website, allowing users to upgrade from security keys to passkeys.

To use passkeys with a GitHub account, users have to navigate to the 'Settings' sidebar, locate the 'Feature Preview' tab, and click 'enable passkeys'. Once passkeys get enabled, they'll be able to upgrade eligible security keys to passkeys and register new passkeys. Moreover, the company said that a new experience, known as Cross-Device Authentication, will let users use a passkey on their phone or tablet to sign in on their desktop, by verifying their phone's presence.