Python has overtaken JavaScript as the most widely used programming language on GitHub, driven largely by the ongoing generative AI boom, the developer platform reports.
The shift reflects Python's growing dominance in machine learning, data science, and scientific computing. GitHub notes that Python's rise coincides with an influx of STEM developers joining the open-source community. While some worry that AI-powered coding could lead to lower-quality code in open-source projects, GitHub says it hasn't seen "signs that AI has hurt open source with low-quality contributions."
Overall, the numbers tell a clear story: contributions to generative AI projects grew by 59 percent in 2024, while the total number of AI projects nearly doubled, growing by 98 percent. While U.S. developers lead in AI contributions, GitHub is seeing more overall activity from developers outside the United States, particularly in India, Germany, Japan, and Singapore.
Smaller AI models gain traction
According to GitHub, developers are increasingly integrating AI models into their tool chains, with a notable shift toward smaller, more efficient models that can run locally and be embedded in mobile apps. The fastest-growing open-source AI project in 2024 was "ollama/ollama," a tool for running language models on local machines.
Beyond the focus on smaller, open models, GitHub says developers continue to show strong interest in image generation and AI agents for process automation, and are developing more specialized AI tools for specific purposes, such as academic research.
At its Universe 2024 conference, GitHub announced new language model integrations for its Copilot code assistant, including Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro, and OpenAI's o1-preview and o1-mini models.
With Microsoft-owned GitHub now competing with its partner OpenAI in the developer tools market, the expansion marks a strategic shift. Other programming tools like Cursor have recently gained ground by leveraging Anthropic's Sonnet model, which has become particularly popular among developers.
