The Copilot Chat extension has over 35 million installations and is a core part of Microsoft's AI ecosystem, now available under the MIT license.

This initiative marks a significant milestone in Microsoft's open-source AI vision, acknowledging the decline of secrecy in AI tools due to the rise of open-source communities.

This transparency helps address privacy concerns by letting developers verify data sent to large language models, fostering trust especially in enterprise environments.

Microsoft is open-sourcing its GitHub Copilot Chat extension for Visual Studio Code, allowing community members to inspect, identify, and fix vulnerabilities, which aims to improve security and robustness.

This move is part of a broader strategy to build trust and transparency by enabling developers to understand how the AI assistant works and contribute to its ongoing improvement through community input.

Microsoft plans to consolidate its Copilot features into a single, open-source module by merging the original inline code completion tool with the new Chat extension, simplifying the architecture and reinforcing its open ecosystem.

The company is also developing the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a universal connector similar to the Language Server Protocol, designed to facilitate secure and flexible AI integrations across applications.

The open-sourcing effort includes making the full source code publicly available on GitHub, emphasizing transparency and community-driven development in AI tools.

Developers now have visibility into system prompts that guide AI behavior, providing transparency and enabling advanced prompt engineering.

Recent enhancements incorporate MCP integration, allowing AI agents to securely interact with developer tools and handle complex, multi-step autonomous tasks.

Microsoft aims to position Visual Studio Code as the central platform for AI-assisted development, leveraging community engagement to improve and secure the tool.