Microsoft scrapped the over-enthusiastic office assistant Clippy about seventeen years ago, but the vision for a friendly and optimistic AI helper has apparently found its way out of the Trash. The company is revamping Copilot, its text-based artificial intelligence tool bundled with Windows and other software, adding vision, voice and the ability to solve more complex problems, along with a more 'encouraging' personality.
“We are truly at an amazing transition point,” said Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI. “AI companions now see what we see, hear what we hear and speak in the same language we use to communicate with each other.”
Copilot has received mixed reactions so far, with some users complaining about lag or vagueness in responses, but Microsoft is betting that the tool could eventually become an integral part of Windows, Office and beyond. By integrating OpenAI's AI algorithms into software used by hundreds of millions of people, the company is also leading the way in testing AI's potential to boost office productivity. Google, a major rival, is also integrating AI into office apps, including Gmail and Google Docs.
The new Copilot will be able to talk to users in different human voices, handling interruptions and pauses naturally. “You can interrupt him halfway, but he can also listen actively,” says Suleyman. “And that's kind of the art of a good conversation.”
Suleyman adds that Copilot has also been tweaked so that it offers users more emotional support. “It's on your team, it supports you, it's your hype man,” he says. Copilot Voice will be available today in English to users in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, with more countries to follow, the company says.
Microsoft's helper Clippy, an anthropomorphic paperclip, was best known for appearing when users opened Word with the infamous line: “It looks like you're writing a letter…” The product was unpopular; Microsoft concluded that this was partly because the program failed to deliver the human intelligence it promised, causing it to forget users' preferences and repeat itself endlessly. Large language models are much better at mimicking human intelligence, but their behavior can still be strange and unpredictable, which may prove a factor in Copilot's popularity.
Copilot Voice will be available in the free version of Copilot for Windows, which is also available in a standalone mobile app and via the web.
Microsoft is also introducing some more experimental upgrades to Copilot, which will be limited to those who pay for a $20 per month Copilot Pro subscription. An opt-in feature called Copilot Vision allows the AI assistant to see users' screens and respond to things they point at with their cursor. Suleyman says that, for example, a user can point to a product and ask Copilot to provide an opinion based on reviews sourced from the Internet.
“One of the most common things is people asking for aesthetic advice,” says Suleyman. “They're on a fashion website and they're like, what do you call that pattern?” What do you call that dress?”
