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This effort by Microsoft to get consumers to embrace AI across their digital lives is part of a larger trend.
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Microsoft just announced several updates to its Copilot AI assistant, and some sound downright useful. It's bringing Copilot Vision to mobile, but with some new features. For the uninitiated, this software originally launched for the Edge web browser and gave Copilot the ability to "see" and comment on the contents of websites.
The company is upping its game for the mobile version, adding some multimodal functionality. It'll be able to integrate with your phone's camera to "enable an interactive experience with the real world." Microsoft says it can analyze both real-time video from the camera and photos stored on the device
Microsoft gives an example of Copilot Vision analyzing a video of plants to determine if
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Microsoft is celebrating its 50th anniversary by showing off Copilot Vision for mobile (Android and iOS) as well as Copilot for Windows. Copilot Vision for mobile is available today. Copilot Vision for Windows is scheduled to debut for members of Microsoft's Windows Insider blog next week and deploy more broadly later on within the existing Windows app.
Microsoft showed off Copilot Vision for Windows in a recorded demonstration released Friday. In the video, the user asked Copilot Vision, who was "following" the user as she worked in Adobe Photoshop, how to adjust the saturation. Copilot responded in the affirmative, then told the user what to do, highlighting the proper control to click. Copilot guided the user step by step — never actually performing the task, but visually indicating, via highlights, exactly what the user needed to do.
Copilot Vision for mobile sounds like Google's Project Astra: using your phone's camera to "see" the world, Copilot can used to answer questions about the world around you. Microsoft suggested that Copilot Vision could be used to assess the health of your plants, or to provide decorating tips. But it will be up to the user to use Copilot Vision, ask the right questions, and for Copilot to provide the right answers.
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Well, now we can add another to the pile: Microsoft just released Copilot Search, which is sort of like an AI-infused Bing Search. It takes in data from sources all over the web, then uses Copilot's AI powers to synthesize a summary for you. You may have seen something similar before in Bing with AI-powered "Copilot Answers."
Copilot Search supports natural language queries, which means you don't have to worry about how to phrase your questions or search inquiries to get the answer you're looking for. For example, if you ask the question, "How much is 57 degrees Fahrenheit in Celsius?", Copilot Search can figure out that you're talking about temperature conversions.
Unlike Copilot Answers in Bing, however, Copilot Search has its own interface that's reminiscent of Copilot itself (and ChatGPT, among other AI chatbots). You can ask follow-up questions and keep the conversation going, building on past queries to get more specific answers.
The easiest way to try Copilot Search right now is to visit bing.com/copi
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