Microsoft celebrates 50 years by adding familiar AI features

Microsoft celebrated its 50th anniversary by announcing a number of new Copilot features. Many of these will look familiar to anyone that has used rival AI platforms.

“Today,” Mustafa Suleyman Microsoft AI head, “we are embarking on the journey to take Copilot from an AI companion to your AI companion.”

This journey includes adding a chatbot’s memory (with the user’s permission) to learn “details about your life.” It is handy for improving the response quality, but also vaguely creepy.

Microsoft was asked if this feature would be opt-in. A spokesperson told The Register “if personalization is available, Copilot will remember key details about you and make your Copilot experience catered to you. You can opt out of Personalization anytime if you no longer want Copilot to remember facts about you through memory.”

that”if personalization is available, Copilot will remember key details about you and make your Copilot experience catered to you. You can opt out of Personalization anytime if you no longer want Copilot to remember facts about you through memory.”

OpenAI added a memory feature to ChatGPT by 2024.

Other upgrades include Shopping to find the best deals “through our real-time catalog of trusted merchants,” as well as Actions which allows Copilot to complete tasks on behalf of the user. Suleyman gave an example of “scoring the gig tickets to sorting the ride home.” Actions could be compared to OpenAI’s Operator functionality

Deep Research was launched, adding to the déjà vu. It will allow users to “conduct complex, multi-step research tasks more efficiently … saving time and wading through complex tasks seamlessly.”

So a bit like OpenAI’s Deep Research (). Or Google Gemini Deep Research.

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Copilot Vision ups the creepiness factor. The Android and iOS versions will be useful – they can identify items in the view of the camera on the phone or use the camera’s roll.

The native Windows desktop version is a bit more unsettling. Microsoft says

“It will read the screen and interact with the content,” that the native Windows desktop version is more unsettling. Copilot will have the ability to change settings, organize documents, and collaborate on project. Windows Insiders are the first to experience what the chatbot can do. The chatbot, who only last week believed there were 25 years left in a half century, will transform their desktops.

Microsoft’s spokesperson told the Register while content would be moved to the company’s cloud for AI computing “Vision sessions and content from File Search are not used for model training or ads personalization.”

and in addition, “Screenshots, audio, and context about what you’re sharing to Copilot Vision are not stored by Copilot.” transcripts of voice conversation with Copilot will be stored as part the conversation history, but “can be deleted at any time.”

Next, Pages, which consolidates research and notes into a “canvas” organizedby Copilot, and Podcasts which will produce AI-powered podcasts.

The world is in dire need of more podcasts.

It is ironic that Microsoft would use its anniversary to announce features for its AI which are similar to those available on rival platforms. Suleyman said in an interviewwith CNBC last week that the business’s strategy is to “play a very tight second” enjoy lower costs and focus on specific use cases, while others push the AI frontiers. Microsoft’s reported strategies aside, the announcements make it clear that the mega-corp is still fully committed to Copilot and that its customers should prepare for what lies ahead. (r)