What Is Copilot? Microsoft's AI Assistant Explained

Microsoft bills its Copilot generative AI service as “your everyday AI companion.” That sounds nicebut what the heck does it mean?

It's a generative AI assistant that can create images (both artistic and photorealistic)find fileshelp you perform various tasksoffer answers on nearly any topicproduce text (such as emails or reports)and much more. It's multimodaltoomeaning it accepts textvoiceand images as input. Copilot can perform deep research on a topic or find a tiny piece of information that's arduous to reach with standard search. It can also write or fix programming code in many popular computer languagesincluding CJavaScriptand Python.

Copilot is powered by a blend of OpenAI and Microsoft technologies. Its underlying AI models are mostly from OpenAIto which Microsoft applies its natural language processing technology and Prometheus framework to merge search data with the GPT model for more up-to-date and relevant results. BelowI dive into each of these topicsas well as all the places and platforms where you can find Copilot.

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What's New in Copilot?

Copilot is changing and developing quickly—in how it workswhat it can doand what it is. Until late 2023for exampleMicrosoft's chatbot was called Bing Chat; the branding is now unified under the Copilot name. The componentsdesignand underpinning technology of Copilot continue to changetoo. You can keep up to the minute with the frequent updates on the Copilot blog.

Microsoft has begun offering three conversation modes for Copilot: QuickThink Deeperand Deep Research. The Deep Research feature takes longergenerating a report on your suggested topic. The company has added several new Copilot features as well. These include Copilot Visionwhich can "see" and provide information about what's on your Windows screen or your camera view on the mobile app. Copilot Pages are AI-powered documents that save and organize your research notes. Copilot Actions hands off tasks to third-party web services for things like making reservations or ordering flowers. Business users can customize Copilot Actions to automate routine tasks particular to their services.

One fascinating new visual update is Copilot Appearancewhich offers an avatar of the AI that reacts to your conversations. It's starting to appear in the web version for select users in Canadathe UKand the US. Copilot Memory is another new capability that lets you train the AI to customize answers based on your interests and previous interactions. And Copilot Podcasts can generate a talk show on the subject of your choice. The back-end technology and interfaces continuously evolvetoo. Copilot moved to GPT-4o for both text and image generationfor example.

On the hardware frontCopilot+ PCs can perform some AI processing locally via NPUsbut most Copilot features still require a connection to Microsoft's cloud. Confusinglythe Copilot+ AI features are a separate set of capabilities from the standard Copilot service I discuss here.

How Do You Get Copilot and What Can It Do?

You can use Microsoft Copilot in quite a few places: on the web at copilot.microsoft.comas desktop apps for macOS and Windowsas mobile apps for Android and iOSin the Edge web browserin Microsoft 365 productivity apps (such as Excel and Word)in messaging apps like WhatsAppand in Bing search. In all of these instancesCopilot can answer questions and generate text and images. Copilot Voice feels like conversing with an actual personand the Copilot Vision feature lets you interact with what's on your screen. You can still interact with it via a keyboard if you prefer. To get all Copilot features (such as Deep Research)you need to sign in to a Microsoft account. For even more access to new features (such as Copilot Actions)you need a Copilot Pro subscription (see below for info).

Copilot on the Web

The Copilot website is available via any web browser on any device. You get the interface you see in most places where you can access the AI. Click the microphoneand a lifelike voice greets you. If you typeyou see your answers in text in the window. You can speak like you're engaging in an everyday conversation and even interrupt Copilot. The web version of Copilot is often the first to get new features. For examplethe Copilot Appearance option first appeared for me in the web versionas did Copilot Actions.

The web and mobile versions also feature Copilot Dailyan AI-generated podcast based on the day's major and minor news and tailored to your interests.

Copilot in Windows and macOS

Copilot in Windows is similar to the web version but has different strengths. You can now use Copilot Vision to get info on windows on your screen. It will even show you (with an arrow and a highlight box) where to click in an app like Photoshop to perform actions. New PCs now come with a Copilot key on their keyboards for summoning the app. Any PC user can summon it with Alt-Spacebarwhich opens a smalleralways-on-top window with the same AI and PC-interacting capabilities.

You can upload a filesuch as an image or documentand ask Copilot to describe or summarize it. You can also ask questions about its content. A screenshot tool offers another way to discuss an image with the AI.

Also new for the Coplot App on Windows is File Search. You can now use the app to find and discuss files on your PC in a conversational way.

On macOSthe App Store version of Copilot is similar to that for Windowsaside from the PC interaction featuressuch as File Search and Copilot Vision. You can open it with Option-Spacebar. On Apple's OSthe Copilot app is just a text- and voice-based generative AI tool. As suchyou might be better off using the web version if you're on a Mac. Note that the wave view in the image above is the same thing you see on the other platforms during a Copilot Voice session.

Copilot on Android and iOS

You can install the Copilot app on both Android and iOS devices. By nowthe interface should come as no surprise (it's the same as on the web and desktop apps). The app is identical on both mobile platforms. (Note that the screenshot on the right is of an Android tablethence the wider aspect ratio.) A big differencethoughis that you can now set up Copilot as your default assistant (instead of Bixby or Gemini). Apple iPhone users are stuck with the struggling Siri.

Copilot Vision lets you share your camera view with the AI for information and discussion. You can ask it what species a tree is or what a landmark is. I tested it with the One World Trade Center building and on an olive tree in a hotel courtyardand it successfully identified both. Just tap the eyeglasses icon to toggle Vision.

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Copilot in the Edge Web Browser

Edge’s sidebar includes a Copilot icon in the top-right corner. One difference in this format of Copilot is that you can ask it questions about the currently active webpage—handy for summarizing long-winded pages. Clicking the microphone icon in the Copilot sidebar enables Copilot Visionwhich lets the AI see what's on your current web page to provide background info and descriptions about the page contents. This adds a toolbar at the bottom of the window with an eyeglasses icon for toggling the feature.

Microsoft is testing a new browser option: Copilot Mode in Edge for Windows and Mac. This turns the browser into an AI browsersimilar to Perplexity's Comet. In this modeCopilot analyzes and compares what's on all open tabs and lets you drive the browser with your voice. Laterit will be able to take actions for you unattended. It offers a new AI-powered new tab page with a single chat boxand it can translate or convert units on a web page. You can try this experimental feature here.

Copilot in Microsoft 365

As a testament to how committed Microsoft is to Copilotthe company recently changed the Microsoft 365 productivity suite's logo to include the Copilot logo. With a paid subscriptionyou can use Copilot directly in Microsoft 365 appssuch as ExcelOneNoteOutlookPowerPointTeamsand Word. (Copilot for Teams requires a business subscription.)

Copilot in Microsoft 365 follows a slightly different track than the standard end-user Copilot; you can keep track of its new features in Microsoft's productivity apps on the Microsoft 365 Copilot blog. Businesses that install Microsoft 365 can ground Copilot’s responses with their own data. In other wordsyou can ask Copilot about specific information in your company's Excel sheetsOutlook emailsTeams chatsor Word documents. Businesses can even build custom Copilots to address specific needs. Enterprise pricing varies.

Any personal user with an up-to-date Microsoft 365 account can brush up on grammar and in Word docsgenerate PowerPoint slideshows from text descriptionsget appropriate formulas in Exceland request summaries of email threads in Outlook. Wellthat isanyone who doesn't choose to downgrade to Office without Copilot. Previouslyyou had to pay an additional $20 per month for a Copilot Pro subscription to get these helpersbut now it's just an additional $3 per month.

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Copilot in Bing Search and the Bing Mobile App

Bing was the first Microsoft product to receive the generative AI treatmentoriginally dubbed Bing Chat. You can still benefit from Copilot smarts within the company's search site. A Copilot button at the top of the interface opens the same web version of Copilot I discussed abovebut you also see Copilot-generated answers at the top of a search result page. These are similar to Google's AI Overviewswhich came after this Bing feature. Here's an example:

A recent addition is Copilot Searchwhich you get to in Bing by pressing the Search button with the Copilot logo above your results. This shows you the AI's reasoning and searches to deliver a relevant answer along with top links for the topic.

Copilot in Messaging Apps

You can also interact with Microsoft's AI via the GroupMeTelegramViberand WhatsApp chat apps. In this formCopilot is like any other contact that you chat with. You can find it simply through the app's contact search or go to this Copilot support pagewhich includes QR codes to get you started. Alternativelyyou can add the chatbot's phone number (+1 877-224-1042) to the app's contacts section. Copilot can impressively generate images inside these apps.

What Distinguishes Copilot From Other AI Chatbots?

Copilot has some unique aspects compared with competing AI chatbots. Its functionality inside EdgeOffice applicationsand Windows is a differentiatorsince ChatGPT doesn't have anything similar. Gemini has similar AI tools in Google Docsand ChromeOS is getting more AI featuresbut Copilot Vision and File Search are still fairly unique.

Are There Privacy and Copyright Issues?

Just like ChatGPT and Google GeminiCopilot uses anonymized conversations to train its AI model. That means it uses whatever you type into it to train itself by default. Howeveryou can turn off that behavior if you sign in. To do soclick on your name in the top right and then on the Privacy section.

Microsoft documents its approach to responsible AI in Copilotas well as a Responsible AI Standard and AI Principles for all its services. According to Microsoftthese policies promote accountabilitytransparencyfairnessreliabilitysafetyprivacysecurityand inclusiveness. A response form lets anyone give feedback about issues with responsible AI. The policy requires Microsoft to “conduct impact assessmentsevaluationsand ongoing monitoring for AI systems to identify and mitigate potential risks and harms to peopleorganizationsand society.”

Microsoft has a Copilot Copyright Commitment policy that covers paying customersrepresenting them in copyright infringement casesand paying resulting fines. Free users of Copilot don't have the same protections and must reviewadaptand attribute the generated content that they use publicly. Work and school accounts also benefit from Commercial Data Protectionwhich states that Microsoft won’t use customer data to train the AI and can't access Copilot interactions.

Copilot Is a Moving Targetand It’s Not Perfect

The generative AI technology behind Copilot is based on machine learningrecursive neural networkslarge language modelsand large image data sets. The version of ChatGPT on which Copilot is currently based (GPT-4o) uses a trillion parameters when formulating answers. It’s a quickly evolving fieldand Microsoft is reportedly preparing for the upcoming 4.5 and 5.0 models. The AI models behind Copilot continue to improve how they understand and parse what you’re asking and sift through data to generate relevant results faster.

Copilot represents remarkable advances in artificial intelligence. Its ability to generate chartsimagesitinerarieslistspoetryproserecipesand answer obscure questions without requiring lots of search term tweaking is remarkable. And the Copilot Voice and Copilot Vision tools put it far ahead of purely chat-based AIs. Remember that Copilot might take longer to produce results than a good old web searchand its facts aren’t always correct (though it provides links to sources and corrects itself in response to your feedback). It comes with an apt warning: “Microsoft Copilot uses AI to respondso mistakes are possible.”

That's par for the course in the rapidly developing field of generative AIand Copilot is getting new tools and AI models at a furious pace. I'll track its progress and update this article accordinglyso be sure to check back for my latest findings.

About Our Expert

Michael Muchmore

Principal WriterSoftware

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Experience

I've been testing PC and mobile software for more than 20 yearsfocusing on photo and video editingoperating systemsand web browsers. Prior to my current roleI covered software and apps for ExtremeTech and headed up PCMag’s enterprise software team. I’ve attended trade shows for MicrosoftGoogleand Apple and written about all of them and their products.

I still get a kick out of seeing what's new in video and photo editing softwareand how operating systems change over time. I was privileged to byline the cover story of the last print issue of PC Magazinethe Windows 7 reviewand I’ve witnessed every Microsoft misstep and winup to the latest Windows 11.

I’m an avid bird photographer and traveler—I’ve been to 40 countriesmany with great birds! Because I’m also a classical music fan and former performerI’ve reviewed streaming services that emphasize classical music.

Areas of Expertise

• Windows
• Operating Systems
• Browsers
• Photo Editing
• Video Editing

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