A Look at Several AI Code-Completion Plugins for Visual Studio Code
1. CodeGen in the PaddlePaddle suite
Claims that the 16B model beats OpenAI's code-generation model. The model name shows it is from Salesforce, and the models are also offered on Hugging Face — search for CodeGen there for models of various sizes. For use in China, going straight through PaddlePaddle is simpler since downloads are fast. You can use the FauxPilot plugin — good and free — though you need to configure it yourself; it isn't complex.
Currently free and the simplest to use; Amazon even encourages its own employees to use it. You just install the plugin of the same name in VS Code and log in as an individual developer. It looks simple, but complaints are everywhere — if you manage to install and use it successfully by following their video, you're lucky; otherwise, stick with PaddlePaddle.
From Microsoft — not sure if it is related to Copilot — uses different models for different programming languages; only uploaded this January. I haven't tried it, but with a light wrapper it should work directly with the FauxPilot plugin.
4. CodeGeeX
You can install the CodeGeeX plugin — it comes from a Tsinghua-affiliated company, with services hosted on its own Tianqi platform. It claims code generation quality slightly better than other platforms. It provides an API for calls, but the fee is expensive — 0.1 yuan per call. It also offers CloudStudio for online use, though the cost is equally steep; the monthly fee is more outrageous than just renting a VPS. Still, you can apply to download the 26 GB model by filling out a form — approval is uncertain.
Once billed as the most powerful code-completion tool around. Originally mainly for Vim, it can also be used in VS Code; configuration is a pain.
Billed as an open-source alternative to GitHub Copilot, said to be based on GPT-3, but actually trained on gpt-neo. It hasn't been updated in ages.
In practice, the options above are more than enough.