Microsoft has taken a significant step in the realm of artificial intelligence with the launch of an enhanced version of its AI assistant, designed to remember user preferences and perform tasks autonomously. This announcement was made during a celebratory event marking the company’s 50th anniversary, where the Seattle-based tech giant introduced its personalized “Copilot.” This innovative tool is capable of developing a “memory,” allowing it to recall essential details such as family birthdays and personal hobbies.
Features of the New Copilot
Mustafa Suleyman, the head of consumer AI at Microsoft and co-founder of Google’s DeepMind, showcased several impressive features of the Copilot. Among these capabilities is the assistant’s ability to independently book tickets, make reservations, and shop online. Suleyman emphasized that this iteration of AI is “far richer, more dynamic, supportive and emergent than any software we’ve seen before,” while assuring users that they would maintain control over the assistant’s new “agentic” abilities.
This update marks a pivotal moment for Microsoft’s consumer AI division, occurring more than a year after Suleyman’s arrival at the company. As Microsoft seeks to reduce its reliance on OpenAI, this development is part of a broader strategic overhaul aimed at revitalizing its consumer image, an area where it has historically lagged behind competitors like Apple, Amazon, and Google.
The event also featured notable figures such as former CEO Steve Ballmer and co-founder Bill Gates, both of whom have faced challenges in the consumer market with products like the Zune music player and Windows smartphones. Current CEO Satya Nadella has shifted the company’s focus from desktop computing to cloud services, resulting in a tenfold increase in share price, now nearing .8 trillion.
S. Somasegar, managing director at venture capital firm Madrona and a former Microsoft executive, reflected on the company’s past missteps, stating, “Windows phone was a huge miss. Search has been a huge miss. Microsoft has had a number of big misses. If the work Mustafa is doing with consumer AI starts resonating, it will unlock huge amounts of value.”
Innovative Developments and Future Plans
Suleyman also unveiled a podcast-generating feature, leveraging talent poached from DeepMind, which had previously developed a similar capability for Google’s AI. Additionally, the new “Vision” feature will enable Copilot to process information directly from a user’s phone camera. Plans for Copilot to have an avatar were also hinted at, reminiscent of the company’s earlier Clippy digital assistant from the late 90s.
In its pursuit to enhance its Bing search engine, Microsoft is aiming to compete more effectively with Google, which currently holds a commanding 90 percent market share in the search market. This initiative comes amid concerns regarding Microsoft’s dependency on its partnership with OpenAI. While Copilot incorporates some of OpenAI’s models, it has not gained the same popularity as ChatGPT, the start-up’s flagship product.
Microsoft’s strategic hiring of Suleyman in March 2024, which included a 0 million investment to license technology from his start-up Inflection AI, reflects the company’s commitment to advancing its AI capabilities. This move occurred shortly after a tumultuous period at OpenAI, which saw founder Sam Altman briefly ousted before being reinstated. Nadella played a role in Altman’s return but has since distanced Microsoft from OpenAI’s ambitious goals of achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI).
“Us self-claiming some AGI milestone, that’s just nonsensical benchmark hacking to me,” Nadella remarked in a recent podcast. Instead, Microsoft is concentrating on the commercialization of AI technologies, asserting that the true potential of AI will be realized through practical applications. The company has also expanded its AI investment portfolio, supporting initiatives like France’s Mistral and Abu Dhabi’s G42, while maintaining a profit-sharing agreement with OpenAI and access to its models until at least 2030.
