Holidays should be a time for peace, cheer and relaxation – not hustle-bustle capitalism! Unfortunately for Big Tech companies though, when there’s a new product or service to promote there’s little time for relaxation.
While most of us were busy decorating halls and baking cookies for holiday gatherings, Microsoft quietly unveiled its AI assistant app Copilot for both Android and iOS, hoping no one would notice amid all the seasonal hustle.
Copilot looks strikingly similar to Microsoft’s Bing Chat app, which made headlines last year for its debut. You can interact with it naturally by chat or voice command and ask it questions or have it draft emails or search the internet on your behalf – typical AI assistant stuff in 2024.
Copilot is equipped with cutting-edge AI such as GPT-3.5 or even the newly enhanced GPT-4 depending on its mode, making it unlike your grandpa’s chatbot: Copilot understands context and follows complex conversations while producing hyper-realistic text and images using tools like DALL-E 3.
Accessing GPT-4 usually costs a considerable sum — around $20/month for us average Joes — but Microsoft is offering users free chat time with one of the world’s most advanced AI systems – GPT-4!
Copilot is an incredible game-changer: any phone user now has an AI assistant capable of powering apps such as ChatGPT – yet Microsoft just quietly sneaked it into our pockets without most people even realizing.
Microsoft may have chosen an inconspicuous launch to introduce Copilot without creating too much buzz, while the holidays provided an ideal time and place for this innovation to shine through.
Microsoft certainly understands what they’re doing here – they were at work making one of their largest AI investments ever by placing advanced generative models into millions of hands while we were roasting chestnuts!
What remains to be seen is whether the public will respond positively when they realize how powerful Copilot truly is, or if holiday timing will allow Microsoft to normalize such high levels of AI without inducing an adverse response?
Copilot may not yet be a match for ChatGPT; it lacks voice-based messaging like OpenAI’s app does, yet sneakily placing it into app stores without anyone’s notice has ensured Microsoft remains part of the AI assistant race in 2024 and beyond, adding another dimension to this year’s AI Winter season.
