Microsoft Build might be known as an annual developer conference, but average folk also have much to gain from paying attention to the big announcements coming out of Seattle. And that’s especially the case this year with new AI-powered products that could change the way you experience the internet.
We’re rounding up the biggest takeaways from Day One of Build 2023.
Windows Copilot
Say so long to Cortana and hello to Windows Copilot, the digital assistant for Windows 11. It’s a new brand for a multipurpose search bar, but it’s gained a lot more purpose with a chatbot interface for on-device operations and default access to the existingBing Chatfor online resources.
In addition to helping you look for and edit files, programs, and settings on your computer, Copilot can also perform tasks that generative AI applications are known for: you may ask Copilot to suggest some moody playlists and then select a playlist from Copilot to open up Spotify. You can also drop in a document and ask it to summarize or make some changes to it.
Microsoft will open a preview of Windows Copilot to Windows 11 users in June.
ChatGPT Plugins
Most of the app integrations like the one we mentioned with Spotify will come froma new plugins schemethat’s been imported directly from ChatGPT. That should come as little surprise considering Microsoft is a major corporate investor in OpenAI. Plugins may be called upon by either the user or any of Microsoft’s chatbot programs (what the company tends to refer to as large language models, or LLMs) as they may be needed.
Conversely, you won’t even need to use anything from Microsoft because any chatbot that adheres to ChatGPT’s scheme should be able to access the very same plugins. This announcement, though, may help to further adoption of that plugin scheme. ChatGPT plugins already exist for a host of services including Expedia, Instacart, Klarna, Slack, and Wolfram. So, if you’re trying to nail down parabolic formulae, piling up sights to see in Hawaii, or getting your new shoes financed, if you can do that through ChatGPT right now, you’ll be able to through Windows Copilot.
Windows Copilot will open a preview program for plugins starting this autumn.
Microsoft 365 plugins
If you’re participating in early access forMicrosoft 365 Copilot, the LLM for Excel, Powerpoint, Word, and other products in the productivity suite formerly known as Microsoft Office, you’ll be able to try out more than 50 plugins from Atlassian, Adobe, Thomson Reuters, and others. The company expects thousands more will be published as plugins become generally available.
In addition to ChatGPT plugins, this expanded plugins scheme will also wrap in Microsoft Teams message extensions and Microsoft Power Platform connectors.
Things get really technical, really fast, but it’s safe to say that users will be able to work with data in new, faster ways that can be tailored to be extremely relevant to their specific situation - whether it’s through third-party plugins or ones they have coded themselves.
ChatGPT with Bing Search
Free users will also be able to use ChatGPT with Bing by enabling a plugin that should be available “soon”.
Stay tuned
These developments all came from Day One of Microsoft Build. We expect to be adding some detail to these announcements as well as covering more of them tomorrow, so stay with Pocket-lint for continuing coverage!
