AI push makes Python the most popular language on GitHub

Python overtakes JavaScript on GitHub for the first time

News By Craig Hale published 30 October 2024

For the first time in GitHub history, Python has overtaken JavaScript as the most popular programming language on the platform, with coders using the increasingly common language for AI development.

The platform’s annual Octoverse report revealed Python’s popularity appears largely due to huge demand for artificial intelligence, but it’s also used in data science for open source projects.

According to the stats, contributions to generative AI projects alone saw a 59% rise, with contributions to AI-related public projects nearly doubling compared with 2023. India, Germany, Japan and Singapore accounted for most of these, says the platform.

Python is now GitHub’s most popular language

Moreover, GitHub noted the surge in developers joining and using the platform from all over the world: “...many of these developers are contributing to open source projects for the first time.”

Two years after the public preview launch of ChatGPT and the subsequent AI boom, the company says companies and developers alike are turning their attentions to AI agents and smaller models that require less compute and promise more custom applications.

The demand for Python is also evidenced in the 92% increase in the use of Jupyter Notebooks, a project designed to support the development of open source software.

According to the report, the growth of Python to become the platform’s number one language is indicative of the shift in userbase, from traditional software programmers to a wider range of STEM use cases.

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