Microsoft has a brand new Clippy, and it’s an AI good friend known as Mico. On the firm’s Copilot fall launch press occasion on Thursday, the corporate launched a spread of recent options and updates for its AI chatbot, however one which telegraphed how the tech big intends to deliver AI to shoppers was the official introduction of its AI chatbot’s “face” — an expressive avatar blob named Mico.
The corporate explains that Mico (its title a nod to “Microsoft Copilot”) is supposed to supply shoppers a “warm” and “customizable” visible presence that “listens, reacts, and even changes colors to reflect your interactions.”
If the speaking AI helper instantly brings to thoughts Microsoft’s notorious productiveness assistant, Clippy, you wouldn’t be incorrect in pondering that. Plainly Microsoft has determined to embrace the reference to its age-old companion, as there’s even an Easter egg the place, should you faucet Mico quite a lot of instances, it can remodel into Clippy.
The characteristic is enabled by default while you’re utilizing Copilot’s voice mode, however customers can flip it off in the event that they select. It’s initially accessible within the U.S., Canada, and the U.Ok., and can have the ability to save reminiscences of your conversations and study out of your suggestions, Microsoft says.
A “Learn Live” mode for U.S. customers could make Copilot a tutor that guides you thru ideas as a substitute of simply offering a solution. The corporate notes it’s made different enhancements in areas like health-related questions and deep analysis, too.
“As we build this, we’re not chasing engagement or optimizing for screen time. We’re building AI that gets you back to your life. That deepens human connection. That earns your trust,” wrote CEO of Microsoft AI, Mustafa Suleyman, in an announcement.
Microsoft just isn’t the one chatbot maker to anthropomorphize its AI. Market chief ChatGPT, for example, affords a visible expertise as properly, with quite a lot of totally different voice choices. In the meantime, xAI’s Grok has turned its AI into risque AI companions. Throughout the app shops, AI companion apps are already pulling in hundreds of thousands, indicating there’s client demand for AI characters to some extent.
Nevertheless, whether or not or not shoppers will reply to Mico’s floating blob stays to be seen.
The corporate says it’s additionally working to evolve Copilot’s character and tone, with the introduction of a brand new mode known as “Real Talk.” This may enable the AI to reflect the consumer’s conversational model, however received’t be as sycophantic as different AI assistants have been. As a substitute, Microsoft says that it’ll really feel like one thing that’s “grounded in its own perspective,” and can push again and problem your concepts, which may encourage you to see issues from a unique perspective.
Discovering a stability between a useful, conversational AI and one which leads customers down rabbit holes has confirmed tough. A number of incidents of AI chatbot psychosis have been reported, the place AI customers come to have their delusional beliefs bolstered by their dialog with the chatbot.
The autumn Copilot replace launched quite a lot of different new options to Microsoft’s AI, together with the flexibility to deliver associates into your Copilot AI chats, assist for long-term reminiscence, connectors to hyperlink productiveness apps like e-mail and cloud storage, and expanded AI integrations for its browser, Microsoft Edge.
The corporate mentioned it’s working to evolve Edge into an AI browser that might have the ability to see your tabs, summarize and examine data, and take motion for you on issues like reserving a lodge or filling out varieties. This is able to enable Edge to compete with different AI browsers, together with OpenAI’s ChatGPT Atlas, Perplexity’s Comet, Dia, and others, in addition to market chief Chrome, which has built-in its Gemini AI.
