Microsoft heavy update: Windows introduces AI assistant, ChatGPT uses Bing search by default

Source: The Paper

Reporter Fang Xiao

· Copilot will not directly replace the search bar on the Windows 11 taskbar, but will create a separate button next to it. "Once turned on, the Windows Copilot sidebar stays with your apps and windows, always ready to act as your personal assistant."

Microsoft has agreed to sign all AI artwork generated by its apps with a cryptographic watermark indicating it was made with an algorithm.

Windows 11 adds Copilot (copilot) AI assistant to the sidebar.

On May 23 local time, the Microsoft Build Developers Conference kicked off and became a large-scale event centered on AI. Microsoft has made several announcements about how it is expanding artificial intelligence in its applications and services.

Among them, Microsoft announced the addition of the Copilot (co-pilot) AI assistant to Windows 11. When using this feature, it is like the Copilot sidebar seen in Edge, Office applications, and even GitHub.

In addition, OpenAI, an artificial intelligence development agency, will start using Bing as the default search engine for ChatGPT. The new search feature is rolling out to ChatGPT Plus users today and will soon be enabled for all free ChatGPT users via a plugin in ChatGPT.

More features than the basic Bing Chat

"Once turned on, the Windows Copilot sidebar stays in your apps and windows, always serving as your personal assistant," explains Panos Panay, director of Windows and devices at Microsoft. Empowers every user to be a power user, helping you take action, customize settings, and connect seamlessly to your favorite apps."

Windows Copilot can summarize what was viewed in the application, rewrite and even interpret it. Looks very similar to the dialog in Bing Chat, so it's possible to ask questions to it.

Windows Copilot can summarize what is viewed in the application.

Copilot won't directly replace the search bar on the Windows 11 taskbar, but instead will have a separate new button next to it, just like the voice assistant Cortana has its own dedicated space on the Windows 10 taskbar.

Since Copilot is integrated into Windows, users can also do things like ask the assistant to "adjust my settings so I can focus." It does a lot more than the basic Bing Chat that Microsoft added to the taskbar earlier this year.

Since Windows Copilot is built on the same foundation as Bing Chat, Microsoft is even allowing developers to extend plugins written for Bing or OpenAI's ChatGPT to Windows Copilot. This opens up many new features developers have created for ChatGPT and Bing to Windows Copilot, and future improvements will automatically transfer to Windows Copilot.

Microsoft has been hinting at building AI capabilities into Windows for the past six months, after Pane said in January that "artificial intelligence will reshape the way you do everything on Windows." Many have been expecting Microsoft to wait until the next major version of Windows to roll out system-level AI features, but the company is clearly moving ahead with its AI initiatives even faster.

Microsoft will begin a public beta test of Windows Copilot in June before rolling it out to Windows 11 users more broadly.

With Microsoft investing billions of dollars in OpenAI, it's no surprise that OpenAI made Bing the default search engine for ChatGPT chatbots.

"Our fantastic partnership with OpenAI is the foundation of our progress on the new Bing," Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's head of consumer marketing, said in a blog post on the 23rd. "ChatGPT will now Has a world-class built-in search engine that provides more timely and updated answers through web access."

Just like Bing's chat experience is powered by GPT-4 and uses citation links, OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot will include search and web data, which also includes citations.

The integration of Bing with ChatGPT is a win for Microsoft in the search engine, after Samsung was rumored to be switching to Bing search and recently decided to stick with Google.

Increase plugin function

Also, Microsoft has some big news for its 365 Copilot: the addition of plugins. AI Assistant will now support 3 main types of plugins, including Teams messaging extensions, Power Platform connectors, and tools using ChatGPT technology. Users can also choose from dozens of third-party plugins, such as those from Atlassian and Adobe.

Microsoft says it will build all Copilot and Bing Chat plugins to the same standard as ChatGPT. This means users will be able to use the same plugins across all 3 AI-powered tools, and developers will also be able to create plugins more easily.

Microsoft is also bringing 365 Copilot to the Edge browser. The tool will sit in the sidebar of the browser and can use content from the website the user is viewing to help with items in Microsoft 365 applications (Outlook, Word, Excel, etc.).

Microsoft is also bringing 365 Copilot to the Edge browser.

For example, the tool should help users do things like draft emails, add data to spreadsheets, generate status updates from chats, and more. The integration will also support the aforementioned plugin for 365 Copilot.

Windows Terminal is also getting an AI-powered chatbot through its integration with GitHub Copilot. Developers using GitHub Copilot can now use the chatbot directly within the terminal to perform various actions, get code suggestions, and explain errors. Microsoft also said it is exploring bringing GitHub Copilot to other developer tools, such as WinDBG.

Microsoft is also introducing a new Dev Home dashboard that makes it easier to set up and use a Windows development machine.

Additionally, Microsoft is bringing AI-generated app review summaries to the Microsoft Store, and has launched a new AI hub to highlight Windows apps that use AI.

Will be watermarked for AI-generated images

Artists worried about others impersonating AI-generated artwork can now breathe a little easier: Microsoft has agreed to sign all AI artwork generated by its app with a cryptographic watermark indicating it was created using made by an algorithm.

The Content Provenance and Authority Alliance (C2PA) began work in 2021 to develop an open standard for indicating the origin of digital images and whether they are real or AI-generated. The issue was thrust into the spotlight in March, when AI-generated images of the pope in a stylish down jacket went viral and AI art generator Midjourney put a limit on it to prevent more similar images from being generated.

The C2PA specification provides for an icon or pop-up to inform readers which art is AI-generated and which is not.

As a founding member of C2PA, Microsoft will officially announce at the Microsoft Build developer conference that it will cryptographically sign AI-generated images from Bing Image Creator and Microsoft Designer.

Images made with Bing Image Creator already contain a small "b" in the lower right corner. However, images generated by Microsoft Designer's visual design tool do not. Now, Microsoft will sign images generated by both tools according to the C2PA standard and explicitly disclose the source in the image's metadata.

AI image generator Adobe Firefly already does this with a feature called Content Credentials -- though it's only supported in Adobe's apps and doesn't carry over to meta that's visible in other apps like Windows 11 Photos. data.

According to the C2PA specification, in addition to metadata, consumers will see a small indicator hovering over or next to the resulting image.

At Build, Microsoft also announced "Azure AI Content Security," a service that allows AI to assist or replace content moderators. The AI scores the images scanned by the AI and flags the human overseers. The service, which will launch in June, will cost $1.50 per 1,000 scanned images, Microsoft said. Microsoft heavy update: Windows introduces AI assistant, ChatGPT uses Bing search by default