Laura Hyde |
Microsoft has added voice and vision capabilities to Copilot to make the artificial-intelligence assistant feel ‘more human’, according to Mustafa Suleyman, executive vice president and CEO of Microsoft AI.
The updated AI assistant boasts a more intuitive design and has been built into the Microsoft Edge browser, which enables it to quickly answer questions, summarise content, translate text and more. To access Copilot, users just need to type ‘@copilot’ into the address bar.
“At Microsoft AI, we are creating an AI companion for everyone,” wrote Mustafa Suleyman, executive vice president and CEO of Microsoft AI in an online blog post. “I truly believe we can create a calmer, more helpful and supportive era of technology, quite unlike anything we’ve seen before. Great technology experiences are about how you feel, not what’s under the hood. It should be about what you experience, not what we are building. Copilot will be there for you, in your corner, by your side and always strongly aligned with your interests.”
Copilot Voice will provide more digestible, speedy and fluent answers, as well as encouragement, feedback and advice. Copilot Voice has four voice options to choose from. It is being rolled out in English in the US and UK on iOS and Android, through the Copilot website and in Windows. More languages and countries will be added soon.
Copilot Vision can provide real-time answers to questions about web content users view, both text and images. It can also suggest next steps and help without disrupting users’ workflow. Copilot Vision is rolling out to Copilot Labs (a test area for experimental features still in development) soon and will be available to a limited number of Copilot Pro subscribers in the United States. None of the content Copilot Vision engages with will be stored or used for training.
Copilot Daily will read a summary of news and weather in users’ favourite Copilot Voice. It can also provide reminders of what’s coming up soon, only pulling from authorised content sources, such as Microsoft partners Reuters, Axel Springer, Hearst Magazines, USA Today Network and Financial Times, with plans to add more sources over time.
Copilot Discover provides users with guides, which can be personalised (with permission), on the AI assistant’s features.
“Some people worry that AI will diminish what makes us unique as humans,” said Suleyman. “My life’s work has been to ensure it does precisely the opposite. We choose what we create. This is something we must do together. Our task is to ensure AI always enriches people’s lives and strengthens our bonds with others, while supporting our uniqueness and endlessly complex humanity. This is a new era of technology that doesn’t just ‘solve problems,’ it’s there to support you, teach you and help you.”