AI-Assisted Code Writing for Government Developers

Employment & Work

What it collects that can identify you

About behaviour

Pseudonymous data

Developer editing actions, code context, cursor position, and in-editor interactions within VS Code are used as live input to generate contextually relevant suggestions.

Government of Canada AI Register — VS code copilot Ai

Also collects operational data, which is anonymized data.

Run by: Canada School of Public Service (CSPS)
Where: No fixed location
Kept: Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with: Accountable organization

What it is for

Employment & Work

This tool helps Government of Canada software developers write code faster by automatically suggesting code completions and detecting errors. It is a developer productivity tool, not a system that makes decisions about members of the public. The key transparency point is that it is built and supplied by Microsoft through VS Code Copilot and deployed by the Canada School of Public Service.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

About behaviour

Pseudonymous data

Developer editing actions, code context, cursor position, and in-editor interactions within VS Code are used as live input to generate contextually relevant suggestions.

Government of Canada AI Register — VS code copilot Ai

Operational data

Anonymized data

Source code files, comments, function signatures, and repository context open in the editor are processed at runtime to generate relevant code completions.

Government of Canada AI Register — VS code copilot Ai

Processing

Language Models

GitHub Copilot uses large language models (LLMs) trained on code to generate code completions and suggestions. The underlying model is provided by Microsoft/GitHub.

Government of Canada AI Register — VS code copilot Ai

What it does

Creating (Generative AI)

Human decides

Generates code completions, suggestions, and boilerplate in response to developer prompts or in-editor context. Developers review and accept or reject each suggestion.

Government of Canada AI Register — VS code copilot Ai

Deciding (Analytical AI)

Human decides

Analyzes existing code to identify patterns, errors, and quality issues, supporting developers in making improvements. Human developers decide whether to act on findings.

Government of Canada AI Register — VS code copilot Ai

Outputs

Generated content

Anonymized data

Code completions, function suggestions, and boilerplate code generated by the AI and presented to the developer for review and optional acceptance within the VS Code editor.

Government of Canada AI Register — VS code copilot Ai

Run by

Canada School of Public Service (CSPS)

The Canada School of Public Service deploys VS Code Copilot AI as a productivity tool for GC employees who develop software.

Government of Canada AI Register — VS code copilot Ai

Built by

Microsoft

Microsoft builds and licenses the VS Code Copilot AI system, which is the underlying technology deployed by the Canada School of Public Service.

Government of Canada AI Register — VS code copilot Ai

Kept for

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

Shared with

Available to the accountable organization

The Canada School of Public Service has access to administrative and usage data from the deployment. Code suggestions and editor interactions may be accessible to Microsoft as the vendor under the terms of service.

Government of Canada AI Register — VS code copilot Ai

Stored

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

How to read the colours

Can it identify you?

Anonymized data: Data about people with the link to who is broken. Stripped of identifiers, blurred, aggregated, or noised so this system can’t reasonably tie a record back to an individual.
Pseudonymous data: Each person’s data is tied to a token (hash, ID, template) that lets this system recognise the same person across events, but the token itself doesn’t reveal a name. Reidentification is possible with extra information.
Identifiable data: The data either contains a direct identifier (name, address, account name, recognisable face or voice, plate number) or carries a token this system uses to look up legal identity during processing.

Who completes the loop?

Human decides: This mode suggests; a person decides what to do next. The AI is always advisory — a human is in the loop on every decision. Example: a triage tool ranks cases for a clinician who chooses which to see first.
Human executes: This mode decides; a person carries out the result. Example: an optimizer plans the day’s trash-collection routes, and drivers run them.
Autonomous: This mode decides and acts on its own. No person reviews each decision or carries out the resulting action.

Definitions from the DTPR standard. Amber is about your data, violet about who decides. The fuller the shape and the deeper the colour, the more identifying the data or the less a person is involved.

What you can do

Ask about this system

Questions go to the Helpful Places, not the vendor.

Your rights

Right to Algorithmic TransparencyGC employees using this tool may request information about how the AI system works by contacting the Canada School of Public Service. Microsoft's documentation for GitHub Copilot is publicly available.

Risks and safeguards

Reputational harmAI-generated code suggestions may introduce security vulnerabilities, license-incompatible code, or incorrect logic into government software if accepted without review.Safeguard: All suggestions are reviewed and accepted or rejected by the human developer before any code is committed; no autonomous code deployment occurs.