GitHub has recently released its Innovation Graph with data from the fourth quarter of 2023, providing a detailed look at global developer activities over the past four years.

The updated data charts show the growing use of AI among developers, marked by a surge in project documentation. This trend is largely fueled by the adoption of chat-based generative AI tools such as GitHub Copilot Chat and ChatGPT.

The update provides a four-year span of data across eight dimensions: Git pushes, repositories, developers, organisations, programming languages, licences, topics, and international collaborations. 

Key insights from India revealed by the data are:

• Indian developers have contributed to code in GitHub 15 million times in 2023 from a little less than 5 million to 15 million in 2023
• Over 13 million Indian developers are actively using GitHub
• India hosts a little less than 30 million repositories
• 500k companies use GitHub growing from 247k in 2020
• India sees the highest collaboration with USA in all the four years

     –   JavaScript is the most popular programming language among Indian developers, followed by Python and Shell.

The increase in documentation activities is likely influenced by the introduction of chat-based generative AI interfaces, which may be lowering the hurdles to maintaining documentation.

According to the graph, the most used programming languages are JavaScript and Python. Mike Linksvayer, the VP of developer policy at GitHub, said, “It’s not particularly surprising to those following developer trends, yet it remains fascinating to watch these shifts over time.”

Another surprising finding was that obscure programming languages like COBOL saw a popularity increase during the hackathons like Advent of Code in December. 

Launched in September 2023, the GitHub Innovation Graph aims to assist policymakers, researchers, and developers in analysing software development trends. With four years of comprehensive data now accessible, GitHub is advocating for further examination and the sharing of insights derived from this open dataset.