Microsoft is working on an overhaul of its Copilot mobile app that includes a new feature that will transform the AI assistant into a virtual news presenter. Multiple sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell me that the software giant has been testing a completely redesigned Copilot app in recent weeks that looks unlike any of Microsoft’s other apps.
Microsoft is turning Copilot into an AI presenter to read you the news
Get ready for a much more personal AI assistant from Microsoft.
Get ready for a much more personal AI assistant from Microsoft.
Image: The Verge
is a senior correspondent and author of Notepad, who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years.
The Copilot redesign surfaces topics you can choose from based on your own interests or your history of asking Copilot questions. The AI assistant might offer to generate a story for you one day, ask if you to do a workout the next, or simply surface the latest sports scores without you having to ask for them.
The interface is card-based, with AI-generated imagery to entice Copilot users into using the app more. While the chatbot system is still very much in place, you can scroll through a list of topics and suggestions without ever having to type to Copilot.
Copilot will even read the news to you, rattling off snippets of headlines and information from publications as if the AI assistant were a real news presenter. Music accompanies this particular mode, and the AI presenters sound as if they’re radio presenters reading the daily news. Microsoft does warn that “there may be mistakes” and the interface lets you skip between news headlines and access links to the news articles Copilot is referencing.
It’s not clear when Microsoft plans to launch this new version of Copilot for iOS and Android, but sources tell me it’s already very usable and feels polished. The interface looks similar to Pi, the AI assistant that Inflection AI created. Microsoft hired Google DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman as the CEO of its new AI division earlier this year, along with a large number of Inflection AI staff.
Inflection AI’s Pi bot lets you choose a voice when you first start using it, and the new Copilot app prompts you to select a voice, too. Pi is also based around suggesting topics of conversation, with a focus on being more of a personal assistant. It’s clear that Suleyman is pushing Copilot toward this personal assistant functionality on the consumer side.
The new Copilot mobile app is very different from Microsoft’s business AI offerings. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently unveiled changes to Copilot integration inside Office apps and a new Copilot Pages app that’s a more collaborative way of using Copilot for businesses. “Copilot is rapidly becoming an organizing layer for work,” said Nadella last week. “We’re just getting started.”
This Copilot mobile app certainly seems like a big shift away from the more corporate feel of Copilot or the history of its Bing integration. Microsoft moved Copilot out of Bing to make it more of a standalone app and experience late last year, before making Copilot the main brand for its AI efforts. The company even launched a Super Bowl commercial earlier this year to drum up interest in the same Copilot mobile app that’s about to be overhauled.
It’s going to be interesting to see which direction Suleyman takes Copilot on the consumer side vs. the AI work Microsoft is doing for businesses. Microsoft typically moves slow and steady for its enterprise customers, but the company has more room to experiment on the consumer side. Whatever happens next, Copilot is clearly heading into its experimental phase.
The pad:
- Google files EU antitrust complaint over Microsoft’s cloud practices. It’s been a while since Microsoft and Google were locked in a war of words, and it looks like things are heating up again. Google has filed an antitrust complaint with EU regulators over Microsoft’s cloud practices, accusing the software maker of unfair licensing contracts for its Azure cloud services. We’ve seen similar complaints from European cloud providers that Microsoft settled with recently, but Google still wants the European Commission to fully investigate.
- Microsoft claims its AI safety tool not only finds errors but also fixes them. Microsoft has launched a new correction feature that uses Azure to automatically detect and rewrite incorrect content in AI output. The correction feature is in preview now, as part of Azure AI Studio, and it will highlight mistakes using small and large language models before users will see the inaccuracies. We’ll have to see whether this improves some of the errors that AI models can often generate.
- Xbox has new translucent options for Elite controllers. I love a good translucent controller, and Microsoft now has a variety of them. If you’re a fan of the Xbox Elite 2 controller, then you can now get seethrough color options starting at $149.99. There’s also a new standalone Ghost Cipher edition of the standard Xbox Wireless Controller that’s much more transparent than the Elite options. I’ve spent a stupid amount of money on Xbox controllers already, and yet I’m so tempted by the Ghost Cipher version.
- Microsoft’s largest ever security transformation detailed in new report. Microsoft made security its No. 1 priority for every employee earlier this year, and now it’s delivering a report on its progress. Microsoft now has the equivalent of 34,000 full-time engineers working toward its Secure Future Initiative (SFI), the largest cybersecurity engineering effort ever inside the company. Microsoft has made a lot of changes already, but it’s still on the long path toward winning back trust.
- Qualcomm wants to buy Intel. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Intel had been approached recently by Qualcomm about a possible takeover. I’d be surprised if this was more than initial discussions, and the deal is described as “far from certain.” If it did happen, then it would combine x86 and Arm chips in a way we haven’t seen from any chip giant yet, and I’m sure regulators would have something to say about it.
- Microsoft’s Copilot key will be able to launch apps on Windows 11 soon. Microsoft has started testing the ability to customize the Copilot key so you can launch any other app that is MSIX packaged and signed. The key will still default to Copilot on devices that have the Copilot app installed, but a new beta build of Windows 11 has customization changes that are coming soon.
- Microsoft wants Three Mile Island to fuel its AI power needs. Microsoft has signed a deal to revive the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. If approved, the software maker would have exclusive rights to 100 percent of the output for its AI data center needs. The reactor that Microsoft plans to source energy from was retired in 2019 for economic reasons and is located next to a unit that was shut down in 1979 after the worst US nuclear accident in history. The plant can generate 837 megawatts of energy, enough to power more than 800,000 homes — demonstrating the huge amount of power needed for data centers and Microsoft’s AI ambitions.
- Microsoft’s new Fluent illustrations are more 3D and playful. Microsoft is overhauling the illustrations it uses throughout its products and services to make them less flat and more playful and interesting. You’ll start to see some of them show up in Office apps like Outlook right now, and the illustrations shift toward 3D designs that bring back skeuomorphism, together with more colorful and playful designs.
- Microsoft launches a Windows app for iPhones, Macs, and Android devices. Microsoft has launched a Windows app for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, web browsers, Android devices, and even Windows PCs. This new Windows app is essentially a more modern version of the Remote Desktop apps Microsoft has built into Windows for years, allowing you to stream a copy of Windows from a variety of cloud-based services.
- Microsoft is moving Game Pass into a single Xbox mobile app. The separate Xbox Game Pass mobile app is going away in favor of the main Xbox mobile app. Microsoft is testing a new version of the Xbox app for iOS and Android this week that includes features from the separate Xbox Game Pass app, and it will no longer support new downloads of the Xbox Game Pass app in November.
Thanks for subscribing and reading to the very end. What do you think of this new Copilot personal assistant idea? You can reach me via email at [email protected].
If you’ve heard about any of Microsoft’s other secret projects, you can also speak to me confidentially on the Signal messaging app, where I’m tomwarren.01. I’m also tomwarren on Telegram, if you’d prefer to chat there.
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