Microsoft recently added OpenAI’s AI GPT technology to the Bing search engine. now to follow Office applications such as Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Applications will use the new improved GPT-4, in a feature Microsoft calls “Copilot”. This name immediately sums up what AI will do: it will still lead the user, but it will soon run faster and more efficiently, Microsoft promises.
Copilot is a new window within Microsoft applications. Users type a command, for example, “Create a suggestion based on yesterday’s notes.” In Word, Copilot can also advance text, which is modified, supplemented, and improved by the user. “Sometimes Copilot gets it right, other times it makes useful mistakes – but it will always help you move forward,” Microsoft said.
Save time
According to Microsoft, we spend 80 percent of our time on extra tasks like answering email. Outlook Copilot can summarize email and suggest pre-made responses. Users will be able to read their emails faster and send a complete response in one click. In Teams, AI can automatically summarize meetings so users don’t really have to pay attention anymore.
Users can also use AI to do things they normally wouldn’t, such as animate a PowerPoint presentation. Jimmy Teevan, Microsoft’s chief scientist, acknowledges that an AI system “can make mistakes and contain biases.” It said each feature has been reviewed by experts in areas such as privacy and security. “We’ll make mistakes, but when they do, we’ll fix them quickly,” Tevan said during Copilot’s presentation.
Access only in the coming months
Most users won’t be able to access the co-pilot until the next few months. The feature is already being tested at 20 companies, including eight Fortune 500 companies.
“This is the next big step for us – to put it into the tools everyone uses for work every day,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. He says the new technology will help people create “great content, great documentation, great PowerPoint presentations, and art.”
Battle with Google
Google unveiled similar features for its Mail and Work apps earlier this week. Google and Microsoft have been in the AI race since ChatGPT came out last November, and it was developed with billions of Microsoft investments.
Google only allows new AI functionality to be tested by a very small group of certified users. This also applies to the new AI chatbot that Google is working on.
Google Bard’s announcement in early February coincided with the launch of Microsoft’s chatbot in Bing, which uses OpenAI’s GPT model. Until now, there was a waiting list for the Bing chatbot, but as of today, people who sign up get direct access.
