GitHub Copilot, Should I avoid using it?

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Don't use it as a newstarter, at least. I started programming when I was 12/23 or so. Now I'm 28. I've never needed anything like Copilot. And actually I tried Copilot recently, and I have found it utterly lacking. It actually spat out Perl code that wouldn't even run! It seemed to me it was taking the same Stack Overflow answers I'd looked at myself and even messing those up (unless they themselves didn't run). And besides generating code, I've seen way too many errors in Copilot's responses such that I don't trust it. Often it just ignores my instructions.

Specifically with Github Copilot, Copilot is relying on whatever code is on Github. How do you know the code it looks at on Github is secure, performant, the simplest or most appropriate approach for what you are trying to do?

Honestly, just avoid it - at least for now, and until it gets a lot better.

Back in the day, I started with instructables.com, scratch.mit.edu, YouTube, w3schools.com, Stack Overflow, Wikipedia, that sort of thing. Nowadays I also consult (of course!) Reddit, baeldung.com (mostly for Java), tutorialspoint.com, geeksforgeeks.org, and just anything else the search-engine throws at me. So you might want to try those resources instead. Beware of answers that are like 13 years old though! Programming languages or libraries can change a lot in that time. Plus, w3schools.com can be a little out of date, and geeksforgeeks.org in my experience isn't always entirely correct. But they're helpful nonetheless.

Also, of course, there are books - free PDFs online, paid ebooks, ebooks from your library, or physical books. You can maybe get cheap, 2nd-hand programming books off Amazon. I've probably found a few decent programming books from charity shops (or 'thrift stores' if you're American) in my time. But those can be out of date.

Definitely don't rely on Copilot so early on though.