Windows 11's AI-powered Copilot (and its Bing-powered ads) Enters Public Preview (arstechnica.com) 26
An anonymous reader shares a report: Last month, Microsoft announced that it would continue its put-ChatGPT-in-everything adventure with a new Windows 11 feature called Copilot. The company added generative AI to Edge and to the Bing-powered taskbar Search field months ago, but Copilot promises to be the most visible and hard-to-ignore version of Microsoft's big AI push in its most visible and hard-to-ignore product. This week's Windows Insider Preview build for Dev channel users, build 23493, will be the first to enable Copilot for public testers.
After installing the update, preview users can press Windows + C to open a Copilot column on the right side of the screen. It will use the same Microsoft account you use for the rest of the OS (it's unclear whether it will work without a Microsoft account, though, to date, the preview has required sign-up and sign-in). And like the other Bing Chat implementations, it has three different "conversation style" settings that either try to rein the chatbot in and keep its answers straightforward and factual or allow it to get "more creative" but more prone to confabulations. In addition to chatting, Copilot will also support creating AI images using OpenAI's DALL-E 2 model, the same technology used for the Bing Image Creator. Some features announced last month, including third-party plugin support, aren't included in this initial preview, and later versions will also be able to adjust a wider range of Windows settings.
After installing the update, preview users can press Windows + C to open a Copilot column on the right side of the screen. It will use the same Microsoft account you use for the rest of the OS (it's unclear whether it will work without a Microsoft account, though, to date, the preview has required sign-up and sign-in). And like the other Bing Chat implementations, it has three different "conversation style" settings that either try to rein the chatbot in and keep its answers straightforward and factual or allow it to get "more creative" but more prone to confabulations. In addition to chatting, Copilot will also support creating AI images using OpenAI's DALL-E 2 model, the same technology used for the Bing Image Creator. Some features announced last month, including third-party plugin support, aren't included in this initial preview, and later versions will also be able to adjust a wider range of Windows settings.
Who is insane enough to be a beta tester for MS? (Score:3)
Let me get this straight: Microsoft gets to track everything I do with this AI, and gets to display me ads... all the while requiring me to test their product.
Oh, and I needed to fork over some cash for it for the privilege of using the OS?
Luckily I got rid of the OS. No regrets there.
Re: Who is insane enough to be a beta tester for M (Score:1)
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Since Windows 8 all users have been Beta testers, whether they knew it or not. M$ fan boys can join a program to get "officially" labeled a Beta tester.
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Me. Yes, I am insane enough to beta test for MS.
The ads are coming regardless, that's not an AI thing. MS has been introducing more ads for some time now.
IMO, ChatGPT and Copilot and its cousins, are as transformative as the original Google search engine itself. I am not going to miss out because I don't like MS.
Return of the Bob (Score:2)
If you don't know what is Bob, skip.... It is 90s weirdo stuff.
I had a very interesting interaction with Bob. Just before the meeting, I decided to print 50 copies of the notes using command line for Word. Apparently, thanks to Bob, the Word opened but the print will not continue until you click on Bob. Since I gave 50 commands in a loop, it opened 50 copies. After some 30-40 windows, the system crashed (It was a large server machine with 128 MB RAM, quite a big machine for 1998).
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Just to add extra context, you can give print command using command line. Normally, the Word will print and exit. But due to Bob, all the windows remained open causing the machine to crash (Windows NT 4.0, Office 97).
Time to upgrade (Score:3)
Sounds like a good time to dump Windows entirely and upgrade to Linux.
Re: Time to upgrade (Score:2)
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Finally, the year of the Linux desktop!
If it requires a Microsoft account? (Score:3)
Microsoft may have accidentally done something right if it forces you to have a Microsoft account in order to use this copilot tracking obscenity on your system. Those of us who have gone to the trouble of setting up local accounts and gutting the Microsoft cloud everything for base operation are exempt. Score one for the few of us who care.
I wonder how long before you can't boot Windows without a permanently signed-in Microsoft account?
Re:If it requires a Microsoft account? (Score:4, Insightful)
What sci-fi promised: intelligent AI assistants who could do increasingly complex things.
What is happening: robots that report back everything you do so a virtual you in advertising databases can be refined and predictions made on what you want to buy, which is valuable to sell to advertisers.
"But page 290 of the clickthru it says the only people who have access to this info are us and anyone who pays us, which includes world governments."
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There were always two kinds of predictions of the future. The "flying cars" kind, or the "cyberpunk flying cars" where the car will first check if you paid for the privilege to steer it or if it must take you to a designated location only.
But then again, there are the Mad Max predictions, but we don't talk about those.
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"But then again, there are the Mad Max predictions, but we don't talk about those."
I want to talk about those. Bring me ThunderDome.
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I wonder how long before you can't boot Windows without a permanently signed-in Microsoft account?
Pretty much this. I'd sooner gag on a rusty spoon than recommend Windows to anyone.
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I resisted for a while. But what finally sucked me in what OneDrive. I hated dealing with backups, and OneDrive gave me a simple and robust backup mechanism that I didn't have to constantly tweak and fix. And the price is reasonable and includes Office.
Signing in to Windows with a Microsoft account *is* more secure than signing in with a local account. This is true in part because you can no longer use the built-in (hidden) administrator account to reset your login password. With local accounts, I used to f
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Google 4Chan and the Fappening some time.
You might change your mind.
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I don't get it. What do these sites have to do with Microsoft logins or OneDrive? Are you suggesting that your files are more secure if they stay on your local machine? Unless you are a true security expert, your files are less secure on your own hard drive, than they are on OneDrive. And if you are a true security expert, you know full well just how vulnerable your files are, despite your best efforts.
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"Unless you are a true security expert, your files are less secure on your own hard drive"
LOL
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No.
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The joke's on you. Even you aren't immune from malware.
As always, I want to know only one thing (Score:2)
how to disable this crap?
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Ditch Windows.
Re: As always, I want to know only one thing (Score:1)
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Install a non-Windows OS.
Re: As always, I want to know only one thing (Score:1)
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