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Posts tagged "Copilot"

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Windows 10 users will get to use Copilot AI after all – but with a big drawback
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Microsoft’s Copilot is exclusive to Windows 11 – we know Windows 10 is feature-locked at this point, with nothing new coming to the OS going forward – but Windows 10 users will get a taste of the AI assistant, it seems.

Not integrated with the operating system, of course, but those who use Edge on Windows 10 will get Copilot in Microsoft’s browser.

Windows Latest has got to play with ‘Copilot for Edge’ (apparently also informally known as ‘actions’) and it’s basically the same as Copilot in Windows 11, facilitating the changing of various settings, but in the browser environment rather than OS.

As the tech site points out, at this early stage, functionality is limited as you might expect, but you can, for example, turn virtual tabs on by asking Copilot in Edge. Or you can switch dark mode on with the browser.

Copilot will be bolted onto the existing Bing AI sidebar in Edge, so this basically represents additional functionality for this part of the interface.

Right now, Copilot for Edge is rolling out to select users testing the browser. This is a phased rollout, we’re told, as is usually the case with big new features, where Microsoft wants to try them out with a small audience at first while the company works out all the inevitable kinks.

Well-known Edge tester and leaker Leopeva64 (on Twitter) has also been following developments on this functionality, and observes that it works with voice input, so those with a mic can speak to Copilot for Edge and give it direct instructions.

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Analysis: Edge of tomorrow

How many folks use Edge? Not that many, of course, but this is part of the reason Microsoft will more than likely follow through with this effort. It’s very keen to push its Edge browser to as many folks as possible to move the dial in the battle against Google’s dominant Chrome browser.

While only Windows 11 users get the real Copilot actually in the desktop OS, Microsoft doubtless figures that those remaining on Windows 10 might just be a bit more tempted to try out Edge if getting Copilot features – even in a relatively small way – is on the menu.

That said, Copilot will likely be more than a flimsy carrot dangled in front of browser users. It should be an impressive step forward for Edge if it’s anything like the expected implementation of Copilot in Windows 11, which will be able to pull off all sorts of tricks – or at least that’s Microsoft's plan.

In Windows 11, you’ll be able to make broad requests like ‘adjust settings to help me be more productive’ and we can’t see why Edge’s Copilot won’t work the same way eventually, instigating a potentially sweeping range of settings changes based on a simple request.

We’re guessing that Edge for Copilot should arrive in a similar timeframe to the AI in Windows 11, which in theory is later this year (with the 23H2 update), at least if the rumor mill is right. (We’re skeptical though, frankly).

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Microsoft brings Copilot to more Windows 11 testers – but it doesn’t seem confident in the AI
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Windows Copilot, Microsoft’s AI assistant for Windows 11, is now rolling out to many more testers.

Neowin spotted that Microsoft quietly updated its blog post for build 23493 in the Dev channel to let us know that Copilot is being made available to every tester.

You may recall that when this build was first released at the end of June, Copilot was only made available to a limited number of testers in the Dev channel, as Microsoft noted that it was going to “monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone”.

Well, the feedback has evidently been received, and going by it, the software giant clearly feels it was sound enough to fully roll out Windows Copilot to everyone.

Microsoft updated its blog post to say: “The Windows Copilot Preview is now available to all Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel. Insiders may need to reboot to have it show up.”

Analysis: Mixed messages with confidence levels here

This is a slightly odd one. On the one hand, Microsoft must have a certain level of confidence in how Copilot is doing in testing to flip the switch to broaden the rollout to everyone.

On the other hand, Microsoft did this very quietly with just a quick update on its blog, and hardly made any fuss about what is in fact quite a major move. In that sense, the tech giant's confidence in Copilot appears shakier, and it all feels a bit under the radar. (Why not announce a full rollout with the next preview and blog post? Because it seems like a sizeable step forward for Copilot).

Maybe we’re reading too much into this – it wouldn’t be the first time – but we find it difficult to believe Microsoft is all that happy with Copilot, not based on the online feedback we’ve seen from Dev testers thus far. Those comments mainly revolve around how very barebones Copilot is – with barely any Windows settings that can be adjusted in this initial incarnation – and also how buggy it is.

Neowin underlines the latter point in its report, noting that Copilot currently has a lot of bugs that make it rather a ‘frustrating’ feature to use.

Thus far, then, the Copilot rollout seems a bit of an odd process, and compounding this matter is that the AI turned up in Dev first, and Canary testers – the earliest channel for cutting-edge additions to Windows 11 – haven’t got a look in yet. Indeed, some people have switched from Canary back to the Dev channel because of this.

Mind you, Canary testers, or anyone else, could always avail themselves of an alternative to Copilot on the Windows 11 desktop – namely a resurrected ChatGPT-powered Clippy (yes, really).

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Windows 11 gets Copilot AI – but Microsoft might be ruining it already
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Windows 11 has witnessed the arrival of Microsoft’s Copilot in testing, representing the first taste the public is getting of the AI assistant.

Microsoft promised Copilot would be out in June when the assistant was announced in May (at Build), and true to its word, the AI is present in the freshly revealed preview build 23493 in the Dev channel.

There are catches here, though, as you might imagine. For starters, this is a ‘controlled feature rollout’ meaning that only a small subset of users will get Copilot to begin with, and Microsoft will open it up to more testers over time.

In the blog post for build 23493, Microsoft tells us: “This first preview focuses on our integrated UI experience, with additional functionality coming down the road in future previews.”

Translation? Here’s Copilot but it’s mostly about how the interface works to begin with, rather than actual features and content. Of course, there is some functionality in this “early look” (as Microsoft calls it) at the AI.

You can ask Copilot to do the standard Bing AI stuff (compose a picture, or a piece of writing), summarize a website (in Edge), and the AI has some basics for Windows 11 controls and options, too.

The examples Microsoft gives are asking to turn on Dark Mode or Do Not Disturb, and also instructing Copilot to take a screenshot.

Microsoft notes: “Windows Copilot has a basic set of Windows settings plugins but no third-party plugin support yet. Over time, features will be added as we refine the Windows Copilot experience with Windows Insiders.”

One final caveat: to use Copilot in this preview build, you’ll need to be running Microsoft Edge version 115.0.1901.150 or later.

Analysis: Copilot lands – and just in time, but with unwanted baggage

The more cynical might lean to believing that Copilot is pretty barebones because Microsoft wanted to make its promised June deadline for bringing the AI to Windows 11 – which it only just managed. Still, whatever the case, testers will doubtless be keen to get stuck into testing the AI, and seeing what it can do, with the functionality likely to be rapidly expanded.

There’s a sizeable fly in the Copilot ointment, though, and that’s the following line in the blog post: “You may see inline recommendations we think are relevant through ads in Bing.”

Does that mean ads popping up in the Copilot side panel? Seemingly yes, but the couching of the language here suggests this is something Microsoft is going to test in small doses, perhaps, and carefully watch feedback. Needless to say, it’s something we are seriously not keen on – but not a surprising direction, given Microsoft flirting more with recommendations veiled as ads in Windows 11 in recent times.

While most testers haven’t got to play with Copilot yet, those in the Dev channel who have obtained access seem quietly pleased with the AI so far. One Redditor comments: “I’ve tried the Copilot and it has a lot of potential. You will no longer need to dig through the settings page for every small change you want to make to the system. Of course, it’s very limited for now, as this is just the first phase. But I am liking it so far.”

There is some displeasure among Canary channel testers, mind you, that Dev folks are getting this and they aren’t – when Canary is the earliest testing channel for Windows 11. It sounds like Copilot will be coming to Canary before too long, though (but already some Canary denizens are saying they’re switching back to Dev).

Of course, if you haven’t got Copilot yet, and are hankering for an AI assistant in Windows 11, then maybe you might want to resurrect Clippy (ahem).

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Forget Microsoft Copilot – an unofficial Clippy AI is available for Windows 11
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Clippy is back – sort of – and ready to help you out on the Windows 11 desktop, if you dare to install a new app (still in beta).

Okay, so yes, this is an odd one, but you may recall Clippy (real name Clippit, but everybody uses the nickname now) from the heady days of Office 97, where the paperclip performed as a virtual assistant. In theory, it helped you to do stuff, but in practice, Clippy was generally an annoying presence. (“It looks like you’re writing a letter…” – well, we aren’t, Clippy, so go away).

The awfulness of Clippy has been mostly forgotten in the mists of time now, replaced by a nostalgic fondness for the assistant, and one enterprising developer has been inspired to resurrect Microsoft’s creation from the 90s.

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FireCube has made the Clippy app which is available from the Microsoft Store (and elsewhere, for free), software that puts a Clippy icon on your Windows 11 (or Windows 10) desktop, one powered by OpenAI’s GPT 3.5 model (as in ChatGPT).

You can pin this Clippy to the desktop and chat away to what is essentially ChatGPT in paperclip form. Note that this is still very early days for the application, so if you take the plunge, expect issues. Likely lots of them.

Analysis: A paperclip that needs some polish

To give you some perspective on where we’re at with this app, Clippy for the desktop was put on Github only a couple of days ago, with the developer FireCube observing that there are still issues with random crashes. So, stability is likely to be somewhat wonky for the time being, we’d imagine.

A further sticking point is that an OpenAI key is required to use this preview version of the Clippy app. If you haven’t paid for one of those, you won’t be able to fire up Clippy. As noted by the dev, this is one of the most pressing known issues for the application, and FireCube is working on a way around this that’ll hopefully be implemented soon enough.

Further work promised in the near future is the ability to drag and resize Clippy, and FireCube aims to bring more classic characters into the mix alongside the paperclip – like Microsoft Bob.

You may recall that Bob was an attempt to make the interface of Windows 95 (and Windows 3.1 before that) more user-friendly by turning it into a cutesy representation of a house. Like Clippy, Bob turned into something of a joke in the computing community, and was a concept swiftly abandoned by Microsoft.

This new take on Clippy for Windows 11 is clearly a tongue-in-cheek move ahead of the inbound Copilot AI which should go into testing in the relatively near future. (Microsoft promised this would happen in June, but that looks like a bust at this point). To say all eyes are on Copilot, and how it’ll be implemented, is an understatement (check out this recent leak for the latest gossip).

AI is very much the future of Windows 11, or rather, next-gen Windows – that and shifting to the cloud (and maybe a subscription model) – so we don’t expect Copilot will be consigned to the bin in short order, as was the fate of Clippy (and indeed Bob). That said, you never know…

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Windows 11 Copilot leak gives us a glimpse of the AI assistant in action
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We know Windows 11 is set to get Microsoft’s Copilot built in, and we’ve just caught a glimpse of the AI assistant feature (well, actually, a couple of sightings, and we’ll come back to the other one later).

In case you missed it (unlikely, admittedly), Copilot is the Bing Chat-powered integrated AI that pops up in a side panel to help in Windows 11, and Windows Latest managed to get a peek at an early version (add your own seasoning, and plenty of it, as with any leak).

There’s a big caveat here, namely that the pre-release version of Copilot shown (in a very brief clip) isn’t fully functional by any means.

Still, it gives you a flavor of how the Windows 11 helper – an assistant with a much, much grander vision than Cortana – will perform, and what it can do.

Windows 11 Copilot Pre-release Version

(Image credit: Windows Latest)

We see the user instructing Copilot to turn on Dark Mode (which, ahem, it fails to do – as noted, this isn’t a proper working version), and a response to a food-based question (the queries work in much the same way as with the Bing chatbot already, and the three core personalities for replies are in here, too).

We don’t see much here, and nothing of the really cool tricks that Copilot will eventually be able to do (such as turning on multiple features in one fell swoop to help with a certain aim like ‘being more productive’, or summarizing content to go in an email, right there in the app, in-line).

However, Windows Latest does observe that Microsoft will use in-house plug-ins to customize the Bing Chat experience in Windows 11, and that Copilot will utilize a system of “action cards” to detect how you are using the OS, and offer up intelligent suggestions based on that.

Analysis: Where art thou, Copilot?

Okay, so while this glimpse of Microsoft’s AI is still very much early work, and not very exciting, it’s a useful hint that Copilot is ticking along progress-wise. Because we’ve not heard anything from Microsoft since the initial announcement of the AI, when we were told that it’d be in testing in June.

Now, June is almost over, and it seems unlikely that a preview build is going to show up later this week with a functional Copilot doing its query answering and settings manipulating stuff.

That said, we’ve caught not only this sighting of Copilot from Windows Latest, but there was another one at the weekend. That was provided by regular Twitter-based leaker Albacore, who pointed out that recent Windows 11 preview builds in the Dev channel have a Windows Copilot button (hidden – and when enabled, it doesn’t do anything, mind).

That’s another hint that things are coming into place for Copilot’s release to be tested in preview. However, we’ve got a feeling this will take a lot of internal testing before it gets to Windows Insiders, somehow. As the blurb in the Copilot side panel observes, it’s AI-powered, and “surprises and mistakes are possible”.

When it comes to a Bing chatbot query, a mistake is embarrassing enough, but with an AI embedded right into the heart of Windows 11, Microsoft is going to need to take a lot more care to avoid any potential blunders – even in testing.

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Microsoft wants to help you build a website with Copilot AI
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Microsoft has added AI enhancements to its low-code website building offering, Power Pages.

Announced at its Microsoft Build conference, Copilot in Power Pages lets website developers leverage AI capabilities for copywriting and form building.

The new update to Microsoft  Power Pages tool looks  to speed up the time it takes website builders to generate text, build detailed forms and chatbots, using intelligent suggestions.

AI site building 

Available in public preview now, albeit in North America only, Copilot in Power Pages aims to cut down website development time with features such as auto-generated tables in Microsoft Dataverse to create corresponding forms.

Also available in public preview, the update also includes a virtual table and Power Automate integration in Power Pages that enables cloud flow from web page events.

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> Microsoft is bringing AI to Microsoft 365

> Microsoft Copilot lands on Viva

> Microsoft powers-up AI in free design app

Developers will be able to leverage these AI-enabled enhancements in Power Pages to jump-start their journey of ideation and building of impactful, secure external website-based services to better respond and serve their customers.

First revealed at Build 2022, Power Pages also includes the integration of Copilot chatbot activation that includes generative answers within the setup workspace.

“You also have the flexibility to adjust, add, or fine-tune fields using natural language input. It’s a more streamlined approach to form creation,” Sangya Singh, Vice President of Power Pages, noted in a blog post.

“For your website visitors, this feature enhances their interaction with your site, allowing them to ask natural language questions and receive concise responses complete with relevant links to optimize both administrative functionality and website engagement experiences.”

Microsoft is working on adding other AI capabilities including page creation, site theming, and image generation, which is predicted to be available in summer 2023.

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Microsoft’s AI gamble with Windows Copilot could be another Clippy
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At Microsoft’s Build 2023 event, the company unveiled its vision for the future of Windows 11: Windows Copilot, making it, as Microsoft claims, the “first PC platform to announce centralized AI assistance for customers.”

From what we know so far, it looks like Microsoft will further integrate its Bing Chat tool into Windows 11. Bing Chat is an artificial intelligence chatbot based on the popular ChatGPT, and Microsoft’s use of it in its Bing search engine has been praised for offering a user-friendly way of using artificial intelligence.

It got people interested in Bing, something Microsoft has struggled to do in the past, so it’s not too surprising that the company is doubling down and further integrating Bing Chat into Windows 11.

According to Microsoft, Windows Copilot will give you a new way to use and configure Windows – so you can ask it to open up a particular app or setting, and you can do this by chatting to Bing Chat as you would a human using a messaging app.

Let’s be honest: the current implementation of search in Windows 11 isn’t great, so anything that improves it is fine by us.

Screenshot of Windows Copilot in use

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Aways there

In other words, it looks like Windows Copilot can detect what apps you’re using and how you’re using them, and offer you advice and information based on that.

That sounds a little creepy, but it could have its uses – for example, if you’re writing up an essay on a subject, Windows Copilot can give you facts and information to help you. Of course, as we’ve seen in the past, AI chatbots like Bing Chat aren’t infallible and can offer wrong information, so always double-check.

Windows Copilot can also be docked to the side of the screen so it can, according to Microsoft, “provide assistance no matter what [a user is] doing – getting inspired, planning, communicating, creating.”

If Microsoft wants us to keep it pinned to the side of our screens, it’ll need to make sure Windows Copilot is genuinely useful and doesn’t get in the way of what you’re doing. We don’t want another Clippy situation, after all.

Clippy was an assistant that Microsoft added to its Office suite of programs. It was supposed to intelligently determine what you were working on, and offer help and inspiration – which sounds a lot like Windows Copilot.

The only problem was, Clippy quickly became disliked by many people, as it would often interrupt while you were working on something – and, even worse, it often gave you suggestions that had nothing to do with what you were doing.

To avoid Windows Copilot turning into another Clippy, Microsoft needs to ensure that it doesn't become too intrusive. That means it shouldn't show pop-ups or take over the screen.

It also needs to be useful – so if it is watching what you're doing, it needs to give context-appropriate help and suggestions. Microsoft has a lot riding on this, so I hope it gets it right.

Microsoft will begin rolling out Windows Copilot in June to people signed up to test out new Windows features.

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