Goodbye, Cortana. It was a good run.
Okay, Cortana isn’t dead but she may as well be with Microsoft’s latest announcement. The company hosted its Build event earlier today and revealed Windows Copilot, which brings the AI assistant right into the taskbar to assist you across the entire operating system.
The company is billing Windows Copilot as a personal assistant built right into Windows 11.
We’re thrilled to introduce Windows Copilot. Windows is the first PC platform to provide centralized AI assistance for customers. Together, with Bing Chat and first- and third-party plugins, you can focus on bringing your ideas to life, completing complex projects and collaborating instead of spending energy finding, launching and working across multiple applications.
Since Bing Chat and ChatGPT plugins are built into the assistant, you can use it to do things like checking the local time of a family member living in another location, finding flights, hotels, and more.
Invoking Windows Copilot is familiar and easy – the button is front and center on your taskbar – simple to find and use. Once open, the Windows Copilot side bar stays consistent across your apps, programs and windows, always available to act as your personal assistant. It makes every user a power user, helping you take action, customize your settings and seamlessly connect across your favorite apps. The things you love about Windows – copy/paste, Snap Assist, Snipping Tool, personalization – they are all right there for you, along with every other feature on the platform, and they only get better with Windows Copilot. For example, you can not only copy and paste, but also ask Windows Copilot to rewrite, summarize or explain your content.
Microsoft says that Windows Copilot will first roll out in a preview in June so, if you are part of the preview program, you’ll get your hands on the new assistant next month. While I’m sad for Cortana, who is likely on the way out, we must embrace this future since Copilot really seems to be the next step for an assistant for Windows.
As Microsoft works to expand the areas it is bringing OpenAI’s technology, Google Bard just made its way to the iPhone in an interesting trick that turns into to an app on your home screen.
