Some Windows 11 (and Windows 10) users recently experienced a QR code-powered advert on the lock screen of their PC, but Microsoft has halted these ads following negative feedback from users.
The QR code appeared on the lock screen and when scanned it turned out to be a promotion for the Copilot AI, sending users through to where they could download the relevant mobile app for Copilot.
Needless to say, as noted there were unhappy users due to this, as evidenced in this Reddit thread pointed out by Windows Latest. Some Windows 10 users were also complaining, as well as those on Windows 11, and all were displeased that a relatively sizeable advert had been used in this clunky manner.
The user who started the thread described being confronted by a “lovely QR code plastered across my lock screen,” and others expressed similar sentiments. (More threads on Reddit here and here – and a quick warning, all this gets a bit salty at times).
Microsoft has now dropped this experiment, fortunately, as Windows Latest reported. A Microsoft spokesperson told the tech site via an email: “The notification [QR code] was simply a way to educate users and has since been paused. We value our customer experiences and are always learning to determine what is most valuable and to whom.”
There are a few things that make this episode worse. Firstly, while Windows Latest talks about Microsoft canning the QR adverts, the statement above mentions a “pause” – a halt for now, not forever. Does that mean QR code-powered adverts are still a possibility for the future? We can’t rule that out, sadly.
The second point is that this experiment was rolled out to those running finished versions of Windows 11 (and 10) – not people in testing channels. That rubs salt in the wound, frankly, even if it was only a small subset of users who witnessed the ads.
What compounds the above is that as observed on Reddit, the QR code was slightly obscured by a part of the Windows interface in some cases, which meant some thought the code was actually there due to a bug, not by design or any intention of Microsoft’s. Again, why this wasn’t trialled in testing, particularly given the apparently glitchy implementation some folks witnessed, we don’t know.
It’s all a bit puzzling. When you mention QR codes and Windows 11, what we immediately think of is the Blue Screen of Death, which offers up a code related to the error that has occurred. That’s somewhat ironic as this latest move appears to be a clumsy error on Microsoft’s part, too.
Those who were irritated by this – or any other lock screen suggestions – can turn them off. On either Windows 11 or Windows 10, go to Settings > Personalization > Lock Screen, and at the top of this panel, select either ‘Picture’ or ‘Slideshow.’
You’ll then see the option to ‘Get fun facts…’ on the lock screen, which you need to turn off – job done. No more fun facts, suggestions, or randomly piped through shoddily-made QR code adverts.
Microsoft has begun rolling out a new feature for its Copilot AI assistant in Windows that will allow the bot to directly read files on your PC, then provide a summary, locate specific data, or search the internet for additional information.
Copilot has already been aggressively integrated into Microsoft 365 and Windows 11 as a whole, and this latest feature sounds – at least on paper – like a serious privacy issue. After all, who would want an AI peeking at all their files and uploading that information directly to Microsoft?
Well, fortunately, Copilot isn’t just going to be snooping around at random. As spotted by @Leopeva64 on X (formerly Twitter), you have to manually drag and drop the file into the Copilot chat box (or select the ‘Add a file’ option). Once the file is in place, you can proceed to make a request of the AI; the suggestion provided by Leopeva64 is simply ‘summarize’, which Copilot proceeds to do.
Another step towards Copilot being genuinely useful
I’ll admit it, I’m a Copilot critic. Perhaps it’s just because I’m a jaded career journalist with a lifetime of tech know-how and a neurodivergent tilt towards unhealthy perfectionism, but I’ve never seen the value of an AI assistant built into my operating system of choice; however, this is the sort of Copilot feature I actually might use.
The option to summarize alone seems quite useful: more than once, I’ve been handed a chunky PDF with embargoed details about a new tech product, and it would be rather nice not to have to sift through pages and pages of dense legalese and tech jargon just to find the scraps of information that are actually relevant to TechRadar’s readership. Summarizing documents is already something that ChatGPT and Adobe Acrobat AI can do, so it makes sense for Copilot – an AI tool that's specifically positioned as an on-system helper – to be able to do it.
While I personally prefer to be the master of my own Googling, I can see the web-search capabilities being very helpful to a lot of users, too. If you’ve got a file containing partial information, asking Copilot to ‘fill in the blanks’ could save you a lot of time. Copilot appears capable of reading a variety of different file types, from simple text documents to PDFs and spreadsheets. Given the flexible nature of modern AI chatbots, there are potentially many different things you could ask Copilot to do with your files – though apparently, it isn’t able to scan files for viruses (at least, not yet).
If you’re keen to get your hands on this feature yourself, you hopefully won’t have to wait long. While it doesn’t seem to be widely available just yet, Leopeva64 notes that it appears Copilot’s latest new skill “is being rolled out gradually”, so it’ll likely start showing up for more Windows 11 users as time goes on.
The Edge version of Copilot will apparently be getting this feature too, as Leopeva points out that it’s currently available in the Canary prototype build of the browser – if you want to check that out, you just have to sign up for the Edge Insider Program.
Ever since its reveal and launch, Microsoft Copilot has been getting a steady stream of features and an upcoming update will add even more. The latest update, detailed in the official Windows blog, will arrive in late March 2024 and will introduce tons of new skills and tools.
For instance, you'll be able to type commands to activate certain PC features. Simply type something like “enable battery saver” or “turn off battery saver” and Copilot will take the appropriate action and confirm its completion.
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There’s also a new Generative Erase feature in the Photos app that allows you to select and remove unwanted objects or imperfections from your images. Copilot will also receive new accessibility features including Voice Shortcuts, which lets you create custom commands using just a single phrase. You can also now use voice commands on a multi-display setup to better navigate between displays or move files and apps.
New plugins are also coming to Copilot, allowing easy access to various applications in an instant. Shopify, Klarna and Kayak will be added in March, adding to the Copilot features offered via OpenTable and Instacart.
Windows Copliot is finally getting there…
Some previous updates to Windows Copilot have given the tool some serious utility. For instance, you can now use it to generate and edit AI images using text-to-image prompts, powered by Dall-E. An update to this tool, Designer, takes it even further by letting you make tweaks to generated content like highlighting certain aspects, blurring the background, or adding a unique filter.
There was also another very useful plugin added to Copilot recently, Power Automate. It lets users automate repetitive and tedious tasks like creating and manipulating entries in Excel, managing PDFs, and other file management.
Slowly Windows Copilot is getting more and more useful, with tons of new features and improvements that make it worth having around. Maybe it will even make Windows 11 a worthwhile upgrade for those who still haven’t taken the plunge yet and are still looking at Windows 10.
Microsoft has revealed a new plug-in for Copilot, its artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, named Power Automate that will enable users to (as the name suggests) automate repetitive and tedious tasks, such as creating and manipulating entries in Excel, handling PDFs, and file management.
This development is part of a bigger Copilot update package that will see several new capabilities being added to the digital AI assistant.
Write an email to my team wishing everyone a happy weekend.
List the top 5 highest mountains in the world in an Excel file.
Rename all PDF files in a folder to add the word final at the end.
Move all word documents to another folder.
I need to split a PDF by the first page. Can you help?
Who can get the Power Automate plug-in and how
As of now, it seems like this plug-in is only available to some users with access to Windows 11 Preview Build 26058, available to Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels of the Windows Insider Program. The Windows Insider Program is a Microsoft-run community for Windows enthusiasts and professionals where users can get early access to upcoming versions of Windows, features, and more, and provide feedback to Microsoft developers to improve these before a wider rollout.
Hopefully, the Power Automate plug-in for Copilot will prove a hit with testers – and if it is, we should hopefully see it rolled out to all Windows 11 users soon.
As per the blog post announcing the Copilot update, this is the first release of the plug-in, which is part of Microsoft’s Power Platform, a comprehensive suite of tools designed to help users make their workflows more efficient and versatile – including Power Automate. To be able to use this plug-in, you’ll need to download Power Automate for Desktop from the Microsoft Store (or make sure you have the latest version of Power Automate).
There are multiple options for using Power Automate: the free plan, suitable for personal use or smaller projects, and there are premium plans that offer packages with more advanced features. From what we can tell, the ability to enable the Power Automate plug-in for Copilot will be available for all users, free and premium, but Microsoft might change this.
Once you’ve made sure you have the latest version of Power Automate downloaded, you’ll also need to be signed into Copilot for Windows with a Microsoft Account. Then you’ll need to add the plug-in to Copilot To do this, you’ll have to go to the Plug in section in the Copilot app for Windows, and turn on the Power Automate plug-in which should now be visible. Once enabled, you should be able to ask it to perform a task like one of the above examples and see how Copilot copes for yourself.
Once you try the plug-in for yourself, if you have any thoughts about it, you can share them with Microsoft directly at [email protected].
(Image credit: Microsoft)
Hopefully, a sign of more to come
The language Microsoft is using about the plug-in implies that it will see improvements in the future to enable it and, therefore, Copilot to carry out more tasks. Upgrades like this are steps in the right direction if they’re as effective as they sound.
This could address one of the biggest complaints people have about Copilot since it was launched. Microsoft presented it as a Swiss Army Knife-like digital assistant with all kinds of AI capabilities, and, at least for now, it’s not anywhere near that. While we admire Microsoft’s AI ambitions, the company did make big promises, and many users are growing impatient.
I guess we’ll have to just continue to watch whether Copilot will live up to Microsoft’s messaging, or if it’ll go the way of Microsoft’s other digital assistants like Cortana and Clippy.
Windows 11 just received improvements in testing to make its Copilot AI more useful with implementing changes in the actual OS environment – in other words, the features that we’re all waiting for.
Copilot has a pretty limited repertoire in terms of what the AI can do for manipulating Windows settings (as opposed to its standard tricks in terms of replying to queries, image creation and so forth).
However, the bag of settings tricks just got considerably heavier, with a raft of additions having just been made to preview build 26058 of Windows 11 (in the Canary and Dev testing channels).
That build was actually released a week ago, but Microsoft just ushered in these extra improvements as Neowin noticed.
So, what can Copilot do for you now? There are a number of important accessibility changes, so for example the AI can be instructed to turn on Narrator or Live Captions, or voice functionality (Voice Access or typing).
And you can get Copilot to take out the trash (empty the Recycle Bin), turn on battery saver mode, or even tell you the IP address of your device.
Here’s the full list of the new capabilities of Copilot when it comes to engaging with Windows settings:
Ask for available wireless networks
Ask for system or device information
Ask for battery information
Ask to clean storage
Ask to empty Recycle Bin
Ask to toggle Battery Saver
Ask to show startup apps
Ask for your IP address
Ask for system, device, or storage information
And the new accessibility features are as follows:
Ask to turn on Narrator
Ask to open Voice Access
Ask to turn on Magnifier
Ask to change text size
Ask to start Live Captions
Ask to turn on high-contrast
Ask to start voice typing
This expands on Copilot’s existing powers to tweaks settings, which already includes taking a screenshot, or changing between the dark and light themes, for example.
Analysis: Expansion pack
There are 16 new abilities introduced in testing here, which should be coming through to the finished version of Windows 11 soon enough. That more than doubles the existing abilities of Copilot at the moment – there are just 12 ways to operate Windows 11 settings via the AI right now – so it’s a welcome expansion.
At the same time, progress on this front feels rather sluggish, given that Copilot and more broadly AI is such a major focus for Microsoft, ever since Bing Chat burst onto the scene about a year ago.
Windows 11 users were sold Copilot partly on its features related to operating various settings and modes easily and conveniently, rather than having to dive into a search deep in the Settings app (or hunting elsewhere in the interface). And thus far, not a lot of capabilities have been added, really.
We’re hoping Microsoft will get its foot to the floor on this side of the Copilot experience later this year, with the Windows 11 24H2 update, but for now, a doubling of numbers is at least a sign of some decent forward momentum.
Windows 11 just got a new cumulative update that applies a bunch of security fixes, and makes a small number of changes to the OS, although they include some important tweaks.
The most interesting change here is that Microsoft has decided to give the Copilot button a new home on the taskbar.
Patch KB5034765, which is for both Windows 11 23H2 and 22H2 versions, also applies an important fix for Explorer.exe which is affecting some PCs. This bug can happen when restarting a PC that has a game controller attached, and means that Explorer.exe stops responding – basically, the desktop (File Explorer) locks up, which is obviously bad news.
Microsoft also let us know that a bug that meant announcements from Narrator (the screen reading tool) were coming through too slowly has been remedied (when using natural voices with Narrator, that is).
Analysis: Don’t expect Copilot relocation right away
As mentioned, there’s the usual raft of security patches with this new update, which are important to apply to keep your Windows 11 PC fully secure.
The big change is the shift for the Copilot button, with it being ushered along the taskbar to the system tray area as mentioned. Why do this? The reasoning is that the Copilot panel is over on the right, so having its button just below where the UI appears makes sense, which is fair enough.
Remember that those who don’t want a Copilot button can drop it from the taskbar, anyway (and folks who want to go further than that and strip out the AI entirely from Windows 11 can do so – kind of, though we wouldn’t recommend it).
Note that not everyone will get this repositioning of Copilot straight away, as Microsoft notes that Windows 11 PCs will get this tweak at different times. In other words, this is another gradual rollout, so it may be some time yet before Copilot shuffles over onto the right of your taskbar – but rest assured, it’ll happen.
While we’re always somewhat cautious around any new update, at least for the first couple of days after it debuts, thus far it seems there are no known issues being reported with KB5034765 (on the likes of Reddit). So far, so good, then, and hopefully the mentioned bug fixes don’t come with any unintended side effects elsewhere in the OS.
Debloating Windows is quite the tradition among some users, and there are apps out there to make this task easier – and a new version of an existing client takes things further with the ability to strip out AI functionality from Windows 11 (and Windows 10, which also has Copilot).
This is BloatyNosy, an app that has been around for quite some time (it was previously known as ThisIsWin11). Now, there’s a fresh incarnation: BloatyNosyAI.
It’s the first version of the new take on the app – still in preview, officially – and the idea is that it can help ditch AI features from Windows 11.
BloatynosyAI 2.0 is available as a preview 🫥🤓https://t.co/eK2UK0Ydni#Microsoft #Windows11 #Windows12 #AI #Copilot #Bloatynosy pic.twitter.com/b63W93CmBVFebruary 12, 2024
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Neowin spotted the launch and tried out BloatyNosyAI, which is handy as the app itself doesn’t make it clear exactly what it can do in terms of Windows 11 AI extraction on its GitHub page.
All the developer, Belim, observes is that the app offers the “ability to remove AI features in Windows” and that: “Plugins can be accessed, for example, via the keyword ‘Plugin’ or ‘AI’ to remove AI in Windows 11/10.”
Neowin tried those keywords – note that the app itself is AI-powered (ironically), which is what the name refers to, as well as debloating AI – and discovered options to remove the Copilot button from the taskbar, or to remove AI from the Edge browser.
The overall philosophy of BloatyNosy is suggested by the name; it’s not just about removing bloat from Windows and speeding it up a touch, but also tweaking privacy settings to combat Microsoft’s ‘nosier’ measures in the OS.
Analysis: Caution first
As already observed, we’d recommend being cautious with this one. It’s interesting to see the new angle and version of BloatyNosy here, but it is still a preview, and this kind of software can have unintended side effects. We’d avoid installing a preview update from Microsoft for Windows 11, let alone a third-party app, just because you never quite know what might go wrong with code that’s still in testing.
Especially when it’s messing around with the internals of Windows 11 (or Windows 10) and stripping out features.
It is, of course, possible to remove Copilot yourself as Neowin pointed out, but that involves fiddling around with the Registry, which is not a recommended pursuit for anyone except the highly tech-savvy.
There are measures you can take to minimize the appearance of Copilot in Windows 11, mind – such as turning off the taskbar icon for the AI, so at least you won’t see it. (Even if that’s hardly the same as removing the assistant from your desktop – or indeed your keyboard where it could set up home in the future).
For now, we’d treat this app purely as an emerging sign of the interest in banishing Copilot from Windows 11, as not everyone wants AI on their PC. Whether Microsoft itself will ever offer an option to strip out Copilot from Windows 11 completely (only available via a Registry hack currently, as mentioned), well, put it this way: we wouldn’t bank on it.
Google has been a sleeping AI giant, but this week it finally woke up. Google Gemini is here and it's the tech giant's most powerful range of AI tools so far. But Gemini is also, in true Google style, really confusing, so we're here to quickly break it all down for you.
Gemini is the new umbrella name for all of Google's AI tools, from chatbots to voice assistants and full-blown coding assistants. It replaces both Google Bard – the previous name for Google's AI chatbot – and Duet AI, the name for Google's Workspace-oriented rival to CoPilot Pro and ChatGPT Plus.
But this is also way more than just a rebrand. As part of the launch, Google has released a new free Google Gemini app for Android (in the US, for now. For the first time, Google is also releasing its most powerful large language model (LLM) so far called Gemini Ultra 1.0. You can play with that now as well, if you sign up for its new Google One AI Premium subscription (more on that below).
This is all pretty head-spinning stuff, and we haven't even scratched the surface of what you can actually do with these AI tools yet. So for a quick fast-charge to get you up to speed on everything Google Gemini, plug into our easily-digestible explainer below…
1. Gemini replaces Google Bard and Duet AI
In some ways, Google Gemini makes things simpler. It's the new umbrella name for all of Google's AI tools, whether you're on a smartphone or desktop, or using the free or paid versions.
Gemini replaces Google Bard (the previous name for Google's “experimental” AI chatbot) and Duet AI, the collection of work-oriented tools for Google Workspace. Looking for a free AI helper to make you images or redraft emails? You can now go to Google Gemini and start using it with a standard Google account.
But if you want the more powerful Gemini Advanced AI tools – and access to Google's newest Gemini Ultra LLM – you'll need to pay a monthly subscription. That comes as part of a Google One AI Premium Plan, which you can read more about below.
To sum up, there are three main ways to access Google Gemini:
As we mentioned above, Google has launched a new free Gemini app for Android. This is rolling out in the US now and Google says it'll be “fully available in the coming weeks”, with more locations to “coming soon”. Google is known for having a broad definition of “soon”, so the UK and EU may need to be patient.
There's going to be a similar rollout for iOS and iPhones, but with a different approach. Rather than a separate standalone app, Gemini will be available in the Google app.
The Android app is a big deal in particular because it'll let you set Gemini as your default voice assistant, replacing the existing Google Assistant. You can set this during the app's setup process, where you can tap “I agree” for Gemini to “handle tasks on your phone”.
Do this and it'll mean that whenever you summon a voice assistant on your Android phone – either by long-pressing your home button or saying “Hey Google” – you'll speak to Gemini rather than Google Assistant. That said, there is evidence that you may not want to do that just yet…
3. You may want to stick with Google Assistant (for now)
(Image credit: Google)
The Google Gemini app has only been out for a matter of days – and there are early signs of teething issues and limitations when it comes to using Gemini as your voice assistant.
The Play Store is filling up with complaints stating that Gemini asks you to tap 'submit' even when using voice commands and that it lacks functionality compared to Assistant, including being unable to handle hands-free reminders, home device control and more. We've also found some bugs during our early tests with the app.
Fortunately, you can switch back to the old Google Assistant. To do that, just go the Gemini app, tap your Profile in the top-right corner, then go to Settings > Digital assistants from Google. In here you'll be able to choose between Gemini and Google Assistant.
Sissie Hsiao (Google's VP and General Manager of Gemini experiences) claims that Gemini is “an important first step in building a true AI assistant – one that is conversational, multimodal and helpful”. But right now, it seems that “first step” is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
4. Gemini is a new way to quiz Google's other apps
(Image credit: Google)
Like the now-retired Bard, Gemini is designed to be a kind of creative co-pilot if you need help with “writing, brainstorming, learning, and more”, as Google describes it. So like before, you can ask it to tell you a joke, rewrite an email, help with research and more.
As always, the usual caveats remain. Google is still quite clear that “Gemini will make mistakes” and that, even though it's improving by the day, Gemini “can provide inaccurate information, or it can even make offensive statements”.
This means its other use case is potentially more interesting. Gemini is also a new way to interact with Google's other services like YouTube, Google Maps and Gmail. Ask it to “suggest some popular tourist sites in Seattle” and it'll show them in Google Maps.
Another example is asking it to “find videos of how to quickly get grape juice out of a wool rug”. This means Gemini is effectively a more conversational way to interact with the likes of YouTube and Google Drive. It can also now generate images, which was a skill Bard learnt last week before it was renamed.
5. The free version of Gemini has limitations
(Image credit: Future)
The free version of Gemini (which you access in the Google Gemini app on Android, in the Google app on iOS, or on the Gemini website) has quite a few limitations compared to the subscription-only Gemini Advanced.
This is partly because it's based on a simpler large language model (LLM) called Gemini Pro, rather than Google's new Gemini Ultra 1.0. Broadly speaking, the free version is less creative, less accurate, unable to handle multi-step questions, can't really code and has more limited data-handling powers.
This means the free version is best for basic things like answering simple questions, summarizing emails, making images, and (as we discussed above) quizzing Google's other services using natural language.
Looking for an AI assistant that can help with advanced coding, complex creative projects, and also work directly within Gmail and Google Docs? Google Gemini Advanced could be more up your street, particularly if you already subscribe to Google One…
6. Gemini Advanced is tempting for Google One users
The subscription-only Gemini Advanced costs $ 19.99 / £18.99 / AU$ 32.99 per month, although you can currently get a two-month free trial. Confusingly, you get Advanced by paying for a new Google One AI Premium Plan, which includes 2TB of cloud storage.
This means Gemini Advanced is particularly tempting if you already pay for a Google One cloud storage plan (or are looking to sign up for it anyway). With a 2TB Google One plan already costing $ 9.99 / £7.99 / AU$ 12.49 per month, that means the AI features are effectively setting you back an extra $ 10 / £11 / AU$ 20 a month.
There's even better news for those who already have a Google One subscription with 5TB of storage or more. Google says you can “enjoy AI Premium features until July 21, 2024, at no extra charge”.
This means that Google, in a similar style to Amazon Prime, is combining its subscriptions offerings (cloud storage and its most powerful AI assistant) in order to make them both more appealing (and, most likely, more sticky too).
7. The Gemini app could take a little while to reach the UK and EU
(Image credit: Future)
While Google has stated that the Gemini Android app is “coming soon” to “more countries and languages”, it hasn't given any timescale for when that'll happen – and a possible reason for the delay is that it's waiting for the EU AI Act to become clearer.
Sissie Hsiao (Google's VP and General Manager of Gemini experiences) told the MIT Technology Review “we’re working with local regulators to make sure that we’re abiding by local regime requirements before we can expand.”
While that sounds a bit ominous, Hsiao added that “rest assured, we are absolutely working on it and I hope we’ll be able to announce expansion very, very soon.” So if you're in the UK or EU, you'll need to settle for tinkering with the website version for now.
Given the early reviews of the Google Gemini Android app, and its inconsistencies as a Google Assistant replacement, that might well be for the best anyway.
Google Bard has been officially renamed as Gemini – and as was recently rumored, there’s going to be a paid subscription to the AI in the same vein that Microsoft introduced with Copilot Pro not so long ago.
Gemini will, of course, sound familiar, as it’s actually the name of Google’s relatively recently introduced AI model which powered Bard – so basically, the latter name is being scrapped, simplifying matters so everything is called Gemini.
There’s another twist here, though, in that Google has a new sprawling AI model called Ultra 1.0, and this freshly built engine – which is the “first to outperform human experts on MMLU (massive multitask language understanding)” according to the company – will drive a new product called Gemini Advanced.
No prizes for guessing that Gemini Advanced is the paid subscription mentioned at the outset. Those who want Gemini Advanced will have to sign up to the Google One AI Premium plan (which is part of the wider Google One offering). That costs £19.99 / £18.99 per month and includes 2TB of cloud storage.
Google is really hammering home how much more advanced the paid Gemini AI will be, and how it’ll be much more capable in terms of reasoning skills, and taking on difficult tasks like coding.
We’re told Gemini Advanced will offer longer more in-depth conversations and will understand context to a higher level based on your previous input. Examples provided by Google include Gemini Advanced acting as a personal tutor capable of creating step-by-step tutorials based on the learning style it has determined is best for you.
Or for creative types, Gemini Advanced will help with content creation, taking into account considerations such as recent trends, and ways in which it might be best for creators to drive audience numbers upwards.
Google is also introducing a dedicated Gemini app for its Android OS (available in the US starting today, and rolling out to more locations “starting next week”). Gemini will be accessible via the Google app on iOS, too.
Owners of the best Android phones will get the ability to use Gemini via that standalone app, or can opt in via Google Assistant, and it’ll basically become your new generative AI-powered helper instead of the latter.
Long press the power button and you’ll summon Gemini (or use “Hey Google”) and you can ask for help in a context-sensitive fashion. Just taken a photo? Prod Gemini and the AI will pop up to suggest some captions for example, or you can get it to compose a text, clarify something about an article currently on-screen, and so on.
Google Assistant voice features will also be catered for by Gemini on Android, such as controlling smart home gadgets.
Naturally, the iOS implementation won’t be anything like this, but within the Google app you’ll have a Gemini button that can be used to create images, write texts, and deliver other more basic functions than you’ll see on Android.
The rollout of the Gemini app on Android, and iOS handsets, starts from today in the US, so some folks may be able to get it right now. It’ll be made available to others in the coming weeks.
Analysis: As Bard exits stage left, will Gemini shine in the spotlight?
Google is pretty stoked about the capabilities of Gemini Advanced, and notes that it employs a diverse set of 57 subjects – from math and physics, through to law and medicine – to power its knowledge base and problem-solving chops.
We’re told by Google that in “blind evaluations with our third-party raters” the Ultra 1.0-powered Gemini Advanced came out as the preferred chatbot to leading rivals (read: Copilot Pro).
Okay, that’s all well and good, but big talk is all part of a big launch – and make no mistake, this is a huge development for Google’s AI ambitions. How the supercharged Ultra 1.0 model pans out in reality, well, that’s the real question. (And we’re playing around with it already, rest assured – stay tuned for a hands-on experience soon).
The other question you’ll likely be mulling is how much will this AI subscription cost? In the US and UK it’ll run to $ 20 / £18.99 per month (about AU$ 30 per month), though you do get a free trial of two months to test the waters, which seems to suggest Google is fairly confident Gemini Advanced will impress.
If $ 20 monthly sounds familiar, well, guess what – that’s exactly what Microsoft charges for Copilot Pro. How’s that for a coincidence? That said, there’s an additional value spin for Google here – the Google One Premium plan doesn’t just have its AI, but other benefits, most notably 2TB worth of cloud storage. Copilot Pro doesn’t come with any extras as such (unless you count unlocking the AI in certain Microsoft apps, such as Word, Excel and so on, for Microsoft 365 subscribers).
So now, not only do we have the race between Google and Microsoft’s respective AIs, but we have the battle between the paid versions – and perhaps the most interesting part of the latter conflict will be how much in the way of functionality is gated from free users.
Thus farm, Copilot Pro is about making things faster and better for paying users, and adding some exclusive features, whereas Gemini Advanced seems to be built more around the idea of adding a lot more depth in terms of features and the overall experience. Furthermore, Google is chucking in bonuses like cloud storage, and looking to really compete on the value front.
However, as mentioned, we’ll need to spend some time with Google’s new paid AI offering before we can draw any real conclusions about how much smarter and more context-aware it is.
It’s been one year since Bing Chat received its generative AI power-up and we’ve seen it change a lot since including a rebranding into Copilot. To celebrate the first anniversary, Microsoft decided to redesign Copilot’s homepage as well as introduce a new editing feature.
The company states when you visit the AI’s engine desktop website, “you will see… a cleaner, sleeker look”. In the middle of the page is a revolving carousel of sample prompts with an accompanying image. Its purpose, according to Microsoft, is to give you an idea of what Copilot is capable of; to get those creative juices flowing. It is certainly more engaging than the previous version. The old page had three sample text prompts next to each other with no indication that it could create images.
Copilot on mobile is receiving an identical update. The app has the same carousel of sample prompts with a picture above to give you some ideas. You also have the option to toggle GPT-4 for better results. Activating it turns the software’s blue accents to purple.
Tweaking prompts
As for the feature mentioned earlier, it’s called Designer. It allows you to make tweaks to generated content like highlighting certain aspects, blurring the background, or adding a unique filter. As an example, let’s take Copilot’s suggestion of creating an image of an animal wearing a football helmet. Moving your cursor over the picture makes a bold white line appear around an object. Clicking it highlights the portion.
A couple of options appear at the bottom of the window. We chose to tell Copilot to make the colors pop. After a few seconds, the finished product appears. You can then either undo the effect or keep it. For filters, you have eight to choose from. Pixel art, block print, and claymation are some of the selections. Like the edits before, applying a filter takes a few seconds.
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(Image credit: Future)
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(Image credit: Future)
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(Image credit: Future)
Designer is free for everyone to try out. However, subscribers to Copilot Pro will be given extra tools. They can resize generated content and regenerate images into either a square or landscape orientation. Microsoft says it eventually roll out a “Designer GPT” to Copilot. The company calls it a canvas of sorts where people can “visualize [their] ideas.” If we had to take a guess, it could be a publicly available GPT model that you can use to create editing tools. OpenAI offers a similar service with its online store. We reached out to Microsoft for more details. This story will be updated at a later time.
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