Announcing Microsoft Copilot, your everyday AI companion - The Official Microsoft Blog
Today we take the next step to unify these capabilities into a single experience we call Microsoft Copilot, your everyday AI companion. Copilot will uniquely incorporate the context and intelligence of the web, your work data and what you are doing in the moment on your PC to provide better assistance – with your privacy and security at the forefront. It will be a simple and seamless experience, available in Windows 11, Microsoft 365, and in our web browser with Edge and Bing. It will work as an app or reveal itself when you need it with a right click. We will continue to add capabilities and connections to Copilot across to our most-used applications over time in service of our vision to have one experience that works across your whole life.
Copilot will begin to roll out in its early form as part of our free update to Windows 11, starting Sept. 26 — and across Bing, Edge, and Microsoft 365 Copilot this fall. We’re also announcing some exciting new experiences and devices to help you be more productive, spark your creativity, and to meet the everyday needs of people and businesses.
Cortana, not the Microsoft assistant, was an actual AI. So Microsoft, in it's infinite wisdom, ditched the name that actually made sense and went with.. copilot. 😬
It makes sense they ditched the name honestly, Cortana has a garbage reputation and they're chasing trends with the copilot name.
It's a shame. The Windows Phone version of Cortana was much better IMO than Siri and Google Assistant at the time. (And tbh Google Assistant seems to be getting worse over time.) It just wasn't a good fit at the time for desktop PCs and Microsoft had no mobile offering to make it the default.
As controversial as it is, this might be my favourite AI assistant name; it's a fun phrasing that explains it's intended use well.
I still won't use it of course, but that's just because I don't care.
Upgrading Cortana would have been a much better move, imo. I could see Apple not wanting to make Siri AI, as Siri is and has been a household name. Cortana, on the other hand, was used by basically no one.
Especially since they already had the perfect name: Clippy!
https://youtu.be/b4taIpALfAo?si=xkkhJVh_Lmg2TTEX
Will AI Bonzi ever exist?
Should have waited to blow their load with the name Cortana until they had an actual VI type technology. Not the Google assistant knockoff that Cortana was.
Soon actual copilots will have to either be replaced with AI or rename their position to not be associated with that garbage.
Vice pilot
"But... Copilot doesn't have titties .."
It doesn't tickle fancy to corporate suits
Unlike ChatGPT or Bard, GitHub Copilot is actually useful for software engineering, so personally I think it was a good move to utilize that brand.
You hugely underestimate the social ubiquity and uncapped potential of the name Cortana.