GitHub's latest report shows that Python has surpassed JavaScript to become the most popular programming language, thanks to the booming generative artificial intelligence boom. Python's growing application in machine learning, data science and scientific computing has attracted a large number of developers in the STEM field to participate in open source projects, thus promoting its rise on GitHub. The report also analyzes AI's contribution to open source projects and how developers can integrate AI models into their toolchains and look forward to future trends.
In the latest report on the developer platform GitHub, Python has successfully surpassed JavaScript to become the most widely used programming language. This change is mainly due to the current continued hot generative artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
Python’s growing importance in the fields of machine learning, data science and scientific computing has driven its rise in the open source community. GitHub notes that the popularity of Python is closely related to the increasing number of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) developers joining the open source community.
Despite concerns that AI-powered coding could lead to a decline in code quality in open source projects, GitHub said it has seen no signs of AI leading to low-quality contributions. In fact, the contribution of generative AI projects increased by 59% in 2024, while the total number of AI projects almost doubled to a growth rate of 98%.
While developers in the U.S. are still leading the way in AI contributions, developers from India, Germany, Japan and Singapore have shown higher levels of activity in overall activity.
Meanwhile, GitHub observes developers increasingly integrating AI models into their toolchains and are moving to smaller, more efficient models that can run locally and be embedded in mobile applications. . The fastest growing open source AI project in 2024 is “ollama/ollama,” a tool for running language models on local computers.
In addition to focus on small open source models, GitHub also notes that developers have shown strong interest in image generation and process automation of AI agents, and are developing more purpose-specific AI tools, such as tools for academic research. While some of the top projects remain stable when comparing the most popular open source AI projects, new projects like ollama and ComfyUI are becoming increasingly important in 2024.
At its 2024 Universe Conference, GitHub announced new language model integrations, including Anthropic's Claude3.5Sonnet, Google's Gemini1.5Pro, and OpenAI's o1-preview and o1-mini models. GitHub, a Microsoft-owned subsidiary, is competing with its partner OpenAI in the developer tools market, and this expansion marks a transformation in strategy. Other programming tools such as Cursor have also gained more and more developers' favor by leveraging Anthropic's Sonnet model.
Key points:
Python has become the most popular programming language on GitHub, driven mainly by the AI craze.
In 2024, the contribution of generative AI projects increased by 59%, and the number of AI projects increased by 98%.
GitHub said AI has not caused the quality of open source projects to decline in code quality.
All in all, GitHub’s report reveals the rise of Python and the profound impact of AI on the open source community. The development of AI has not only promoted the changes in programming languages, but also changed the way developers work and tool choices, which are worthy of attention in the future.