As AI models around the world see rapid improvements and new features galore, Copilot is joining in the action. Announced at Microsoft’s 50 year anniversary, Copilot is gaining a host of new tricks and tools to make your life easier.
In theory, this newest version makes Copilot more reactive and more personal. This follows the wider sentiment of the AI world right now, creating models that feel personal to you and your needs.
Or as Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI puts it: “Copilot is more than an AI, it’s yours. It remembers not just what you said, but who you are. Copilot helps you stay organized, think clearly, and learn more intuitively. It's there when you need a quick factual answer, a long exploratory debate, or when you fancy just downloading after a hard day."
So what does this all mean, and what’s new with Copilot?
A smarter assistant
Copilot’s update, at its core, is about making the model smarter. Part of this is seen in its improved memory. Copilot can now remember important details about your life including your favourite foods, film genres and music artists.
When you interact with Copilot, it will note any preferences mentioned, building a more detailed user profile for you. This can then be used to tailor solutions and suggestions and make more timely reminders based on birthdays, whether you’re a morning or evening person and other factors you alert it to.
If this all sounds like your worst nightmare, don’t worry. This is all adjustable and you can choose how much information is noted in the settings or opt out of it entirely.
Details are unclear on how this will unfold, but Microsoft has also announced that Copilot will experiment with its appearance for you personally. This is described as experimental and Microsoft is “early in this thinking” suggesting more details will come soon.
As an extension of Copilot's increased intelligence, it can now also take actions on your behalf. That might sound somewhat concerning, but it is a feature other AI models are expanding into, including recently Amazon Alexa+.
Using chat prompts, Copilot will be able to book event tickets, get dinner reservations, or send gifts to your friends. While this will work through most websites, Microsoft is also partnering up with certain brands including Skyscanner, Vrbo, nd Booking.com.
Copilot Vision
Last year, Microsoft announced Copilot Vision for the web. Now, it is also coming to both mobile and Windows.
This will allow you to use your phone’s camera to enable an interactive experience with the real world. For example, by looking at your surroundings through the camera, you’ll get real-time information about your surroundings and the ability to ask Copilot for suggestions.
By using your camera you can access the health of plants, get help with a restaurant menu, or scan your living room for help with how to decorate. The same can be done with videos on your camera roll.
A similar function will be available on your Windows desktop. While working across applications, browser tabs, or files, Copilot can be called upon to read the screen and interact with the content. In this instance, Copilot can search, change settings, organize files, and collaborate on projects.
This feature will first appear in Windows before later being rolled out on other devices.
Other new Copilot features
Copilot Vision and an increase in general intelligence are the two big headlines here, but there are plenty of other new features announced. These include:
Pages:
A way to organize your thoughts and content. This takes all of your notes, content, research, and files and puts them all into a canvas. Copilot will then organize and simplify the information, turning it into a rough draft, before helping you turn something into a final project for school or work.
Podcasts:
A feature that seems to be making the rounds on AI models, Copilot can now generate AI-powered podcasts. This will curate and deliver personalized audio based on your interests.
For example, if you’re looking to plan an upcoming vacation or home purchase, you can give Copilot all of the relevant information and it will generate a podcast to explain your options to you.
Alternatively, if you want to learn a new topic, Copilot can create a podcast dedicated to this subject for you to learn in your own time.
Deep Research:
Another feature appearing more often on AI models now, deep research lets you conduct complex research tasks via Copilot. This will deep dive into hundreds of documents and large amounts of information to bring you the most important information.
Copilot Search:
Copilot search is a feature that will make its way to Bing. It cross-checks information across websites to deliver more comprehensive responses directly in Bing.
This is a direct competitor to AI Overview seen at the top of Google when you search for something.
Microsoft has announced that this feature will be slowly released over the coming weeks and months.
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