Python has long been the go-to for automation, data science, and AI, and now Pythonistas have even more to celebrate!
At the GitHub Universe event on October 29, the developer platform announced that Python overtook JavaScript as the most popular language. The company also said the adoption of Jupyter Notebooks, the open-source Python application, sharply increased. These developments highlight the growing focus on data science and machine learning among GitHub users.
Source: GitHub
During the event, GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke emphasised that the age of AI hasn’t just begun—it has crossed the chasm and now runs through the core of GitHub. Over the past year, GitHub, the popular web-based platform, experienced a generational surge in AI creation, with a remarkable 98% year-over-year growth in AI-related projects in 2024 alone. A significant factor behind this growth is Python’s dominance in machine learning and AI development.
“The platform is now widely integrated into daily workflows across data science, academia, and research, solidifying Python’s role as the primary language for AI,” said Dohmke, in his keynote speech.
GitHub’s rapid expansion has made open-source innovation a central trend, driving its growth and has evolved from a social coding platform to the world’s largest creator network in the AI era.
Meanwhile, according to their Octoverse report, the platform has hosted 518 million projects, with a 25% year-over-year growth, leading to a total of 5.2 billion contributions to all projects on GitHub in 2024. Less than 1 million open source maintainers, verified teachers, and students have used GitHub Copilot at no cost, while contributions to public and open source projects in 2024 have reached approximately 1 billion. Additionally, there are 137,000 public generative AI projects, showing a 98% year-over-year growth.
While there are clear indications that AI is sparking interest in software development, the surge in global growth still surpasses what can be fully attributed to AI alone.
GitHub Loves India
Putting all this aside, one of the big trends uncovered at Universe’ 24 is that over the past year, more developers have joined GitHub and engaged with open source and public projects—often empowered by AI tools. Since GitHub Copilot gained mainstream traction in early 2023, the platform has experienced major growth, with notable increases in developer engagement from the Global South.
The 2024 edition of GitHub’s Octoverse report shows a surge in generative AI activity in India, signalling that AI has moved beyond the hype of 2023 as Indian developers and organisations prioritise results over experimentation. We are also emerging as a crucial player in the global technology sector, with substantial contributions to generative AI and open-source projects.
With notable growth in our country, it now boasts over 17 million developers actively building on the platform. This reflects a remarkable 28% increase in 2024, and India is expected to have the world’s largest developer population on GitHub by 2028.
In Q4 FY23, it had 13.2 million Indian developers using GitHub. This surge establishes India as the fastest-growing developer community worldwide. Comparatively, in the US, there were approximately 20 million developers.
“Our latest Octoverse report affirms that India’s developer community is the fastest growing developer population on the planet. India’s rise as a global tech titan is now inexorable,” said GitHub chief.
He added that Indian developers are increasingly using AI to drive innovation, improving the likelihood that major multinational companies will emerge from India.
The Takeaway
Python is everywhere—and it’s been used to build a significant number of the technologies, websites, and even systems most people encounter on a daily basis. It powers everything from popular video streaming platforms to machine learning algorithms that guide cryptocurrency trades. On a larger scale, back in 2022, Python played a key role in NASA’s data analysis for the sophisticated James Webb Space Telescope, making it one of the few programming languages that is, quite literally, out of this world.
Nonetheless, this new milestone highlights the language’s role in shaping open-source innovation and supporting a global community of developers. As Python continues to evolve, its impact on the future of technology remains substantial and far-reaching.
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