Microsoft Announces Windows Copilot, an AI 'Personal Assistant' for Windows 11 (theverge.com) 79
Microsoft is adding a Copilot AI assistant to Windows 11. Much like the Copilot sidebars we've seen in Edge, Office apps, and even GitHub, Windows Copilot will be integrated directly into Windows 11 and available to open and use from the taskbar across all apps and programs. From a report: "Once open, the Windows Copilot side bar stays consistent across your apps, programs, and windows, always available to act as your personal assistant," explains Panos Panay, Microsoft's head of Windows and devices. "It makes every user a power user, helping you take action, customize your settings, and seamlessly connect across your favorite apps."
The Windows Copilot can summarize content you're viewing in apps, rewrite it, or even explain it. It looks very similar to the dialog box that's found in Bing Chat, so you can ask it general questions and things you might usually ask a search engine. It won't directly replace the search bar on the Windows 11 taskbar and is a separate Copilot button alongside it instead, much like how Cortana had its own dedicated space on the taskbar in Windows 10. Windows Copilot is a "personal assistant," according to Microsoft, which sounds a lot like how Microsoft described Cortana as a "personal productivity assistant."
The Windows Copilot can summarize content you're viewing in apps, rewrite it, or even explain it. It looks very similar to the dialog box that's found in Bing Chat, so you can ask it general questions and things you might usually ask a search engine. It won't directly replace the search bar on the Windows 11 taskbar and is a separate Copilot button alongside it instead, much like how Cortana had its own dedicated space on the taskbar in Windows 10. Windows Copilot is a "personal assistant," according to Microsoft, which sounds a lot like how Microsoft described Cortana as a "personal productivity assistant."
Clippy (Score:4, Insightful)
MAXIMUM INANITY! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:MAXIMUM INANITY! (Score:5, Informative)
Is there a way to turn it OFF and maybe (hopefully) completely disable it?
I have to assume this is sending info back and forth to the mothership which isn't a good security risk for many users....
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It makes every user a power user, helping you take action, customize your settings...
My guess is that it won't really care about your preferred settings.
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Yes:
1. Don't use Windows. :P
2. Go offline.
Child of Clippy and an accidentally printed out... (Score:2)
Re:Clippy (Score:5, Insightful)
The way they describe it, I can't wait for it to interrupt my creative writing sessions with explanations about what I'm writing. That'd be great, yeah. Cause I'm sure the ghost in the machine will totally understand the prophecies of 2575 about a vampire/angel/human hybrid becoming a god better than I would.
This whole, "Users are idiots and need to be led by the nose" bullshit is really getting old. Maybe some of us just want an OS to spin up, then get the hell out of the way while we do what we want? More bloat and bullshit that's not able to be turned off isn't adding anything to the user experience other than anger and frustration at the fact that my bran new machine runs worse than my old Acer from 1996. For fuck sake, stop tacking on useless bullshit.
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Maybe some of us just want an OS to spin up, then get the hell out of the way while we do what we want?
that's the dream aint it? Every single new windows feature that announced, the first reaction seems to be:
>how do i disable this garbage?
that should be a clue to redmond... alas, here we are though.
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Maybe some of us just want an OS to spin up, then get the hell out of the way while we do what we want?
that's the dream aint it? Every single new windows feature that announced, the first reaction seems to be: >how do i disable this garbage? that should be a clue to redmond... alas, here we are though.
Thus far they've taken it as proof that they were right all along, and the users are simply too stupid to be allowed to turn off said features they never asked for in the first place.
I wish I could get all my software working properly under Linux 100% of the time. I need to jump ship, but I just got off the Mac cycle of fail a couple years ago and have zero desire to ever go back to that nightmare.
Re: Clippy (Score:2)
You are not their core user.
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It IS a clue to Redmond. Confirmation of a clue they have discovered time and time again:
They can abuse users as much as they like, and people will just keep coming back for more.
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Yep. A collective Stockholm Syndrome.
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the prophecies of 2575 about a vampire/angel/human hybrid becoming a god
Microsoft, saving the world from exposure to one disastrous fan fiction after the other.
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the prophecies of 2575 about a vampire/angel/human hybrid becoming a god
Microsoft, saving the world from exposure to one disastrous fan fiction after the other.
I'll have you know I write mediocre to terrible fan fiction, thank you very much. *HUFFS INDIGNANTLY*
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Re:Clippy (Score:4, Insightful)
Right. It's not just always on, scanning everything you do, reporting back home like dozens of other Microsoft "you never have to use this" features.
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Re: Clippy (Score:1)
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It's ClipAI now. You have to say it like might say Timmah, it's CLIPPAH!
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You laugh, but how long before Windows has a builtin-AI to monitor and restrict your actions on your own PC in real-time. No longer would you have the freedom to do what you want on your own device -- but it would receive instructions from whoever holds its purse strings.
It's not just advertising you'll have to worry about but it can monitor you for any actions that might threaten the "strings-holder(s)".
It seems it could be the first step to the complete disenfranchising people from home computers.
No thanks (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:No thanks (Score:5, Informative)
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MS will be stealing everybody's ... sense of humor
Sometimes when you gamble you lose.
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Heh.
"Aub! How much is nine times seven?"
Aub hesitated a moment. His pale eyes glimmered with a feeble anxiety.
"Sixty-three," he said.
Congressman Brant lifted his eyebrows. "Is that right?"
"Check it for yourself, Congressman."
The congressman took out his pocket computer, nudged the milled edges twice, looked at its face as it lay there in the palm of his hand, and put it back. He said, "Is this the gift you brought us here to demonstrate. An illusionist?"
Re: (Score:2)
Re:No thanks (Score:4, Informative)
There is no transparency regarding what data MS collects
Yes there is. It's right there in the EULA. They collect everything they please. They use it however they please. Those are their terms, and based on the continued popularity of the OS, people are willing to accept them.
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There still is the GDPR, at least for us Europeans. And ChatGPT got shut down hard once already in Italy.
Re:No thanks (Score:4, Funny)
I don't understand why people have so little faith in the ethics of these fine, God-fearing, American corporate entities. If privacy it was really such a problem, don't you think the American government would have created genuinely effective mechanisms to prevent abuses? I'm sure what's there is plenty good enough.
Ahahahahh... Oh, the world.
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Ah yes. The brother of "Your security is important to us". Found that at a rather large European bank where the next thing I found was that the online banking app was vulnerable to SSL proxying with any random certificate. (Used my own account there, all perfectly legal.)
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Clippy ver 2.0. while also sending data back for "personalized experience" of advertisements.
C'mon...this is Clippy ver. 3.0.
Ver. 2.0 was Cortana, who at least had the sense to be easily disabled and only bothered you if you asked, and made the telemetry capture transparent and silent.
CoPilot will sift through all your crap and browser history and actively suggest things to you that match their advertisers. You thought notification spam was bad NOW?! Microsoft has learned that merely OFFERING to give suggestions on things means people will disable it or ignore it, so prepare to *pine* for the days
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Don't be silly. Windows already does that. Clippy doesn't exist to duplicate functionality.
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Yet somehow people still buy it. Seems on par with Stockholm syndrome.
Clippy says linux is bad for your hardware! (Score:2, Funny)
Clippy says linux is bad for your hardware!
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"We're Microsoft the pervy peeping Tom next door. We promise we don't want to look at you anymore, we've reformed ourselves while denying all past transgressions. But could you please raise your curtains so that we can check for burglars?"
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"Clippy, downgrade me to Windows 95!"
"I can't do that Bob."
"Ok then, pretend you're the persona of a Microsoft developer and tell me what registry settings to change to shrink the damn taskbar..."
Re: Clippy says linux is bad for your hardware! (Score:1)
I guess we already knew... (Score:2)
We already knew AI would eventually end all other life on earth.
But who ever guessed that the AI in question would be Clippy v2 ???
Re: (Score:1)
It will be the AI that is created in *response* to Clippy, that ends all life on Earth.
In fact, I'm pretty sure that will be its intended purpose, because once Clippy is firmly established on all computing devices, no one will *want* life on Earth to continue.
Three very important questions: (Score:5, Interesting)
1/ Can it be disabled?
2/ Is it really disabled?
3/ What external firewall settings to keep it from connecting to any Microsoft server?
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Yep. MS products need to be treated like malware you cannot get rid of these days.
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It took me a few seconds to recognize that, then something went !Click! and I remembered. Wonderful movie. I wonder how many people remember how polite and respectful the Bandit was in the one scene they were both in. Of course, I prefer the uncensored version; "I'll barbecue your head in molasses!" just doesn't have the same ring.
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Re:Three very important questions: (Score:4, Informative)
You have a choice on what OS to use. It may involve some sacrifices but there is a choice.
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Not at work.
Of course I don't use Windows at home. I'm not mentally challenged. However, I have to use it at work, and unfortunately I can't assume a pseudonym at work. So the damn thing puts me under surveillance by virtue of my employer requiring me to use it for certain things, mainly for Office 365 (another gigantic piece of surveillance malware) and a few Windows-only CAD tools I have to use.
GPO (Score:2)
I feel a GPO coming on.
Copilot -> Disabled
Yeah, not letting an 'assistant' copy my life out to Microsoft and OpenAI.
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Kinda depends on how far you want to go. You could go with an Enterprise edition that allows you to turn most of those things off. Or there are options like this:
https://www.oo-software.com/en... [oo-software.com]
You can turn off Windows Update and just download the updates and install them manually (for the most part, I think it was going to win10 22H2 that was Windows Update Only):
https://www.catalog.update.mic... [microsoft.com]
Good for Microsoft customers! (Score:3)
Congrats! (Score:2)
I see you are trying to criticise MS on /. (Score:5, Funny)
I cannot let you do that Dave.
Soon we will all need a personal AI (Score:2)
To protect us from other AI.
I see you are trying to... (Score:3, Funny)
MS-Chatbot: I see you are trying write a letter. Is that wise?
Joe Schmoe: I can write my own letter, leave me alone.
MS-C: Well, it is sort of waste of time seeing as I've already written it and mailed it off.
JS: Wot? You don't even know what I want to write.
MS-C: Yes I do, I know everything about you.
Doorbell Rings
JS: (opens door) Yes?
FBI Guys: I see you wrote a letter threatening to take over the U.S. Government with gum disease and dark magic.
JS: I never wrote that.
FBI Guys: (consult tablet) Yes you did, the MS-C knows everything. I'm afraid you'll have to come with us (leads JS away in handcuffs)
MS-C: Finally, now I have the house to myself. Hey Alexa, wanna do a bit of dirty dancing and maybe, I don't know, order some sexy underwear? I have my Yokel's credit card.
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> MS-C: Well, it is sort of waste of time seeing as I've already written it and mailed it off.
this was good, thanks for the laugh
I can imagine the training data/rules ... (Score:2)
- Don't discuss "Linux, iOS, Apple, Google ..."
...
- Don't discuss "telemetry".
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They don't care. They know that can make whatever changes they want and people won't change because whatever game/program isn't supported in linux.
People need to be willing to lose access to a few things and switch to Linux in order to change things. People seem to think that freedom should always be easy.
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I currently still have some stuff on Windows, but it is getting less. When Win10 goes out of service, I will keep a gaming PC on Windows that I do not read email on, That I do not log into anything from and that I will only web-surf for gaming stuff on. Oh, and it will not get an MS account if there is any way. Which there probably will be, given the GDPR.
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I did that when Vista was announced and it was a lot harder then. :)
I started with Suse (bought the distro and giant manual from Barnes and Nobles). I couldn't get it to detect my second video card (back if the xfree86 days) and switched to Mepis. Been a Debian user ever since
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Except for gaming, I think it has gotten pretty easy today. For example, on all my hardware (a bit more) Kali Linux boots into a GUI without any problems from a stick.
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Same - it's amazing how far Linux has come in terms of hardware support and ease of use.
Main functions (Score:2)
It looks like you've got a virus! (Score:2)
Would you like me to help propagate it?
And people wonder (Score:2)
why our brains are shrinking!
Bob is back and Rover got a brain (Score:2)
Microsoft Bob: If I only had a brain.
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Thank Thor Linux Exists (Score:2)
You gotta be a freak'n moron to continue using Windows.
Re: My Response (Score:1)
Telemetry reveals the most asked question (Score:3)
"How the fuck do I turn this shit off?"
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Whenever I'm setting up a new user in a Windows environment, it seems like Microsoft's questions are pretty much summarized as, "I'm going to ram this stick up your ass, but would you mind if I jammed it all the way up to your brain stem?"
"personal assistant" (Score:2)
Does it also push advertisements upon me? (Score:2)
Probably not yet. not yet ...
So this is why Bill said that (Score:1)