Technology

Microsoft expands GitHub AI with Anthropic integration and multi-model support

Thursday, 22 May 2025 3:15AM UTC

Microsoft announces integration of Anthropic’s AI coding agent into GitHub, enhancing developer productivity with a multi-model AI ecosystem including Google and OpenAI technologies, and signalling a strategic shift towards greater platform neutrality and innovation.

Microsoft Corporation has announced plans to integrate an AI coding agent developed by the Google-backed startup Anthropic into its GitHub platform, marking a significant expansion of its AI capabilities. The announcement, made by Executive Vice President Jay Parikh during the company's annual developer conference, confirms Microsoft's commitment to enhancing GitHub's functionality while fostering a diverse ecosystem of AI tools. This strategic alliance follows the earlier introduction of GitHub’s own coding agent, which previously relied heavily on OpenAI's GPT models.

The integration of Anthropic’s AI coding agent will allow developers to automate various software development tasks, such as bug fixes, thus increasing efficiency and productivity. Microsoft’s ownership of GitHub—acquired in 2018—positions the company as a leader in the burgeoning AI market, where the competition for robust coding assistants is intensifying rapidly. By offering AI solutions from both Anthropic and OpenAI, Microsoft aims to establish platform neutrality and provide developers with a range of tools to suit their unique needs.

Notably, GitHub is also expanding its capacity by allowing developers to use various AI models, not just from OpenAI, but also from Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro. GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke remarked that “there is no one model to rule every scenario,” highlighting the necessity for flexibility and adaptability in coding environments. This multi-model approach will enable developers to optimise their workflows by selecting the most suitable AI depending on specific tasks or programming languages.

Moreover, Microsoft is reportedly working to reduce its reliance on OpenAI models within its 365 Copilot software suite by incorporating both internal and third-party AI solutions, aiming to decrease operational costs and enhance efficiency. This broader strategic shift is indicative of a company keen to diversify its AI portfolio, thus catering to a wider array of enterprise requirements. There are indications that a large proportion of Fortune 500 companies are currently utilising the 365 Copilot suite, although many remain in the trial phase.

As Microsoft enhances its offerings through partnerships outside of OpenAI, it also plans to introduce developer tools that promote collaboration and innovation within the GitHub framework. Initiatives such as the GitHub Copilot Partner Program seek to enrich the AI ecosystem by allowing third-party developers to contribute plugins and tools, further amplifying the potential use cases for AI in software development.

In tandem with the integration of diverse AI models, GitHub is developing a C# SDK for the Model Context Protocol (MCP) in collaboration with Anthropic. This open-source initiative aims to facilitate the integration of advanced AI functionalities into C# applications, underscoring the community-driven efforts to advance AI applications in programming.

This expansion into a multi-approach AI framework comes at a pivotal time for the tech industry, where developers and businesses alike are seeking innovative solutions to streamline processes and enhance performance. By adapting to a landscape where diverse AI capabilities become essential, Microsoft appears poised to cement its role as a pivotal player in the software development space, reshaping how coding is approached in the digital age.

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Source: Noah Wire Services

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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-plans-integrate-anthropic-ai-025449731.html?.tsrc=rss - Please view link - unable to able to access data
https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/microsoft-works-add-non-openai-models-into-365-copilot-products-sources-say-2024-12-23/ - Microsoft is working to integrate internal and third-party AI models into its 365 Copilot software suite, moving away from its heavy reliance on OpenAI's GPT-4 model to reduce costs and increase efficiency. This effort mirrors similar strategies in other Microsoft products, indicating a broader shift within the company. Despite still utilizing OpenAI’s advanced models, Microsoft is also customizing and training its own models, such as Phi-4, for improved performance. This change aims to lower operating costs and likely offer savings to customers. While Microsoft has not disclosed specific sales numbers, it reports significant usage among Fortune 500 companies, although a large number of enterprises have yet to move beyond initial trials of 365 Copilot.
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft-partners-with-anthropic-to-create-official-c-sdk-for-model-context-protocol - Microsoft is collaborating with Anthropic to create an official C# SDK for the Model Context Protocol (MCP). MCP has seen rapid adoption in the AI community, and this partnership aims to enhance the integration of AI models into C# applications. The SDK is being developed as an open-source project in the modelcontextprotocol GitHub organization, making it easy for developers to find and collaborate on the project. The library is available as a NuGet package, ModelContextProtocol. The starting point for this library was a project called mcpdotnet, initiated by Peder Holdgaard Pederson. We are grateful for the work done by Peder and other contributors to that repository, which created a solid foundation for the official MCP C# library.
https://github.blog/news-insights/product-news/universe-2023-copilot-transforms-github-into-the-ai-powered-developer-platform/ - GitHub is enhancing its Copilot feature by integrating it with third-party developer tools, online services, and knowledge outside GitHub. The GitHub Copilot Partner Program aims to create an ecosystem for new networks and ingenuity to be infused into GitHub Copilot, broadening the expanse of what developers can achieve with AI. As this ecosystem continues to expand, so will the possibilities and use cases of what GitHub Copilot can accomplish for developers. From helping to improve the performance of database queries, to checking the status of a feature flag, or to viewing the results of an A/B test–all of this and more will soon be possible thanks to the partners who are building plugins for GitHub Copilot.
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/business/money-report/microsofts-github-expands-beyond-openai-lets-developers-use-ai-models-from-anthropic-google/3753261/ - GitHub, which Microsoft acquired in 2018, said in a blog post on Tuesday that developers will be able to power the GitHub Copilot Chat feature with Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet model or Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro model, as alternatives to OpenAI's GPT-4o, if they choose. "There is no one model to rule every scenario, and developers expect the agency to build with the models that work best for them," GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke said in the post. Microsoft introduced GitHub Copilot in 2021, offering source code suggestions to software developers. Copilot relies on models from OpenAI, which has received billions of dollars in funding from Microsoft and has exploded in popularity since releasing ChatGPT in late 2022.
https://www.business-standard.com/technology/tech-news/github-forges-ai-deals-with-google-anthropic-to-integrate-models-124102901645_1.html - Microsoft Corp.’s GitHub has agreed to bake artificial intelligence models from Anthropic and Alphabet Inc.’s Google into a coding assistant used by millions of software developers. At first, customers will be able to use Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet to chat and ask questions, GitHub said Tuesday at its Universe conference in San Francisco. Eventually, the models will be incorporated into the main part of the GitHub Copilot assistant, which can spit out code with a few simple prompts. After teaming up with OpenAI a few years ago, GitHub pioneered the use of generative artificial intelligence to automate tedious parts of the coding process. The company will continue to make the OpenAI models the default setting, but developers will be able to switch to the Google and Anthropic models if they wish, GitHub Chief Executive Officer Thomas Dohmke said in an interview.
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/10/github-copilot-moves-beyond-openai-models-to-support-claude-3-5-gemini/ - The large language model-based coding assistant GitHub Copilot will switch from exclusively using OpenAI's GPT models to a multi-model approach over the coming weeks, GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke announced in a post on GitHub's blog. First, Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet will roll out to Copilot Chat's web and VS Code interfaces over the next few weeks. Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro will come a bit later. Additionally, GitHub will soon add support for a wider range of OpenAI models, including GPT o1-preview and o1-mini, which are intended to be stronger at advanced reasoning than GPT-4, which Copilot has used until now. Developers will be able to switch between the models (even mid-conversation) to tailor the model to fit their needs—and organizations will be able to choose which models will be usable by team members. The new approach makes sense for users, as certain models are better at certain languages or types of tasks.

Microsoft
GitHub
Artificial intelligence
Anthropic
Developer tools