Microsoft dropped a doozy of an announcement at Build today: They’re bringing an AI assistant called Copilot to Windows 11. This sidebar tool is baked right into the OS and helps users with all sorts of things like summarizing content, rewriting stuff, or paraphrasing – basically making everyone a high achiever and boosting how much work or studying gets done.
The public beta for Copilot kicked off in June, and Microsoft’s been gradually opening it up more and more. Since Microsoft and OpenAI use the same models, devs can build plugins that work with ChatGPT and pretty much anything Microsoft offers.
Copilot is the big sibling of Bing Chat, a dialogue tool launched by Microsoft earlier this year. Based on OpenAI’s GPT-4 chatbot technology, Bing Chat allowed users to communicate with the search engine in everyday language. Now, the upgraded Copilot is seamlessly integrated into Windows 11, making it accessible in any application and offering users intelligent suggestions and actions tailored to their needs.
So, what can Copilot actually do? First off, users can open the Copilot sidebar and feed in information. In response, Copilot generates results based on the content and displays them in the sidebar. Users can also fire common or professional questions at Copilot, and it will search the internet for relevant information, providing accurate answers.
Microsoft’s Edge browser is also getting in on the Copilot action. It can analyze and interpret web page content, write summaries, generate icons, and even draft emails.
Moreover, Copilot isn’t just limited to searches and queries. It extends its capabilities to settings, file managers, or other applications, allowing users to quickly adjust system parameters, manage files, or interact with other apps through the AI assistant.
Microsoft emphasizes that Copilot isn’t just a search tool or voice assistant, but a genuine “personal assistant” capable of understanding user intent and context to provide the most appropriate and helpful support. Developed with cloud computing and AI technology, Copilot boasts strong learning capabilities and scalability, supporting developers in writing plug-ins and extensions for it.
As a result, Microsoft and OpenAI have adopted the same patch standard, enabling developers to create plug-ins that support ChatGPT and various Microsoft products and services simultaneously.
According to Microsoft, Copilot is one of their latest AI innovations and shows where Windows 11 is heading. With its integration into a myriad of applications and its ability to provide intelligent suggestions and actions, it’s no wonder that Copilot is set to make every user a high performer.