Microsoft Copilot Can Now Read Your Screen, Think Deeply, and Speak Aloud To You (techcrunch.com) 75
Microsoft has unveiled new features for its Copilot AI assistant, including screen analysis and voice interaction capabilities. Copilot Vision, available to Copilot Pro subscribers, can analyze web content in Microsoft Edge and answer queries about on-screen information. The company said processed data is immediately deleted and not used for model training.
A new Think Deeper function aims to tackle complex problems using advanced reasoning models. Copilot Voice introduces synthetic speech output and voice input in select English-speaking countries. Microsoft also announced personalization features, leveraging user history to tailor Copilot recommendations. This functionality will be limited initially, with the company evaluating options for European Economic Area users due to regulatory considerations.
A new Think Deeper function aims to tackle complex problems using advanced reasoning models. Copilot Voice introduces synthetic speech output and voice input in select English-speaking countries. Microsoft also announced personalization features, leveraging user history to tailor Copilot recommendations. This functionality will be limited initially, with the company evaluating options for European Economic Area users due to regulatory considerations.
And as always (Score:5, Insightful)
How do we properly remove this shit (short of switching to *nix, which isn't always possible in a non-home environment)
By switching to "off"??? (Score:1)
1. Become Amish or something similar
2. Unplug from tech
3. ???
4. PROFIT!!!, er, stop the [privacy] losses!!!
Step 1 is optional.
Re: (Score:2)
I've beeon on rumbspringa for close to 50 years now!
Re:And as always (Score:5, Informative)
Download the LTSC build of windows from your favorite torrent site. Use the activator script from massgrave.dev and you won’t have cortana, the MS store, or any AI bullshit. It’s also supported past 2025.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:And as always (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:And as always (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't talk to my computers, I don't care to speak to "digital assistants" like Siri, etc....and I loathe the new phone answering systems use that try to force you to speak to the prompts rather than push a button on the phone...
First, I can't stand it when in the office or in public...I don't want them listening into what I'm doing.
But just on a more visceral level...I don't wanna talk to a machine. When alone, on the phone with one...I start yelling for it to get me "a fucking human" to talk to...as that I understand many of them listed for frustrated people and will expedite you to a real person.
I know I'm getting older and closer to the "get off my lawn" level...but am I the only one that can't stand talking to a fucking machine?
I learned to type for a reason...fast, accurate input...
Re: (Score:3)
I wonder...am I the only person that does NOT like to talk to a computer???
No, you're definitely not alone. I hate doing it, and AFAIC people who are OK with it can just get the fuck off my lawn.
Re: (Score:2)
"No man ever went broke overestimating the ignorance of the American public." -- P. T. Microsoft
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
No - you are not alone.
Your question sounds like it should be a Slashdot poll.
Then, we need to find a way to rub their noses in the results - the tech moguls who create this shit.
Re: (Score:2)
oh, you can just speak to me! (Score:2)
A few places I've had to call in recently seem to use the same "helper" to ask questions, complete with a flurry of keystrokes after my responses like they are typing in my info. The same exact flurry of keystrokes every time. I guess that is supposed to make it feel natural.
And it *really* wanted me to speak instead of using my keypad. I keyed in my birthday and it gave me a "oh, you can just speak to me!" And made me do it again. It accepted the keypad the second time.
Naturally after they collect all the
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re:And as always (Score:4)
But seriously, crap like this can and should be brought up with legal. Specifically the "we take undesired photos of your screen every X seconds without your permission and have our AI go though it" bit and how it risks giving Microsoft all of your corporate IP, trade secrets, and insider info to sell to your competitors / various governments.
Re: (Score:3)
it risks giving Microsoft all of your corporate IP, trade secrets, and insider info to sell to your competitors / various governments
That was always the plan.
Re: (Score:3)
This garbage was immediately shut down by legal, audit, and infosec...after the IT teams already flagged and disabled it.
Copilot has some guardrails in enterprise which made it allowable for a test population. But the screen scrape/keyboard logging stuff? No freaking way. Not for business, not for personal. Not for any reason whatsoever unless I can be 1000% certain the data never leaves my device and is fully encrypted with a key ONLY I can access...and since that prevents any kind of data mining by 3r
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
short of switching to *nix, which isn't always possible in a non-home environment
What does this mean ? You mean at work you are forced to use Widows at work ? To me, what happens at work stays at work. Who cares if the company wants to be spied on. If WFH, isolate your Windows PC from your own home network, many routers now allow for a "guest network".
At home, no reason to have windows except for GPU intensive gaming. But in a year or 2, Linux may very well one that space.
People want an OS (Score:5, Insightful)
People want an operating system, not a garbage can in disguise. Make all of this extra shit optional installs. Windows is nothing but a huge stinking landfill that Microsoft keeps dumping into hoping that at least something doesn't stink to high hell.
Re:People want an OS (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
No no no...they're adding "features". Features they KNOW people want. All 3 of them in fact.
The rest of us...TBH Win7 would be fine for me if they updated the back end graphics/audio/x64 to support modern equipment and software. I can't think of much else in the latest windows build that I'd actually miss otherwise. They just keep moving stuff around and adding garbage.
Ok, tabbed cmd/PS is handy but I lived without it for 30+ years just fine.
Re:People want an OS (Score:5, Insightful)
Techie users, a microscopic minority, want an OS. They have many choices and many ways to contain Windows if they've a financial incentive to run it.
"People" (conventionally meaning the average drone) do not even install OS let alone have the slighest interest in how they work.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm OK with tech ignorance in the right circumstance:
If said tech works effectively seamlessly, has a stable feature set, is reasonable intuitive for common tasks, and meets the general requirements of the public.
But instead MS (and others) keep changing, adding, removing, and just relocating features for no actual reason...it's just a nightmare for user training. heck, look at the "new outlook" that's missing basic features like sort/search by column. I can't be the only one who sorts by name, and starts
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And Co-Pilot Says... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
More likely "It looks like you are writing a letter. Would you like help?"
And the hype train keeps rollin' down the track (Score:5, Insightful)
Investors demand that companies justify their gigantic investment in AI
Unfortunately, it's a long term research project, and useful results won't be available for years
But investors demand profit NOW
Expect a tsunami of half-baked, useless, annoying AI crap to be forced down our throats and the most common tech support question to be "how can I turn this crap off?"
The only valid use for the current generation of AI is for comedians to make jokes about
Re: (Score:2)
"Hey Copilot, write a stand up show with AI as the theme."
Re: (Score:2)
MS: "When can I sell it?"
Copilot: "It's their data, use it when you need it!"
Re: (Score:2)
Copilot: "So, boss I just got this juicy tech from some startup's programmer workstation."
MS: "When can I sell it?"
Copilot: "It's their data, use it when you need it!"
Hey AI, write me a commercial about opera singers on a downtown bus ride. The singers are incompetent programmers who "Have a software deliverable" and they "Need code now!" Include this refrain: "Call Microsoft Copilot, 877 Code Now!"
Re: (Score:2)
So how does it get monetized? If AI was actually useful, people would pay to use it without it being forced on everyone. So presumably there's a concept of a plan to make money off of it, no?
Re: (Score:2)
The only valid use for the current generation of AI is for comedians to make jokes about
They're really good for making huge-boobed soft-core-porn parodies of historic popular shows (especially in the SF/Fantasy genres that nerds like).
Ummm, what else?
People will use this (Score:5, Insightful)
for satisfying their curiosity and entertainment.
Then they will stop.
Does it wear a cape? (Score:3)
Sure sounds like Super Clippy.
Re: (Score:2)
Time to whip out the Cliptonite.
Re: Does it wear a cape? (Score:3)
Sounds like a Scoobie Doo episode, where Clippy is masquerading as Cortona?
Though my concern, is if Cortona is reading my screen, then at what point does this potentially open a door to a vulnerability? Hopefully this can be deactivated in a corporate environment, otherwise data leakage is a high risk.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Leaps over Privacy in a single bound.
Another worry for domestic violence victims (Score:3)
Thanks, Microsoft. You just keep finding new ways to get women murdered.
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks, Microsoft. You just keep finding new ways to get women murdered.
How so?
Seriously asking what you are seeing that I don't...
Re:Another worry for domestic violence victims (Score:5, Interesting)
Have you ever accidentally turned on any of the accessibility features of windows, or accidentally switched keyboard maps even though no other keyboard maps have been enabled? Imagine that, but it accidentally reads off the list of divorce attorneys and battered women shelters on your screen and your abusive partner bursts into a rage and murders you on the spot for daring to leave them.
Re: (Score:2)
That's not at all far-fetched. It's like forgetting to delete your browser history after searching for "domestic abuse", except it happens pretty much instantly.
Microsoft Jobs (Score:2)
They're just doing the work that malware won't.
Re: (Score:2)
That was done with windows 10, when they put OS level keylogger that reports everything to the mothership.
let's see... (Score:2)
Microsoft Copilot Can Now Read Your Screen
No thanks.
Think Deeply
Definitely no thanks.
Speak Aloud To You
What exactly do you think I use my computer for?
Creepy (Score:4, Insightful)
For those that want it, I'm sure this sounds like it adds some great features.
For the rest of us, it sounds really creepy, and is a great motivator to spend as much time as possible with a less-intrusive OS.
Re: (Score:3)
Yes, speaking aloud in a computerized voice, being creepy, trying to get monetized:
"Welcome to User Experience. Please tell me what you are wearing. Oh yes, that is hot. Please query me more. Yes, just like that."
Yes, but (Score:3)
Can it uninstall itself?
Rotate the pod HAL... (Score:2)
Hi (Score:2)
It seems like you're trying to write a new word document, do you need assistance in coming up with ideas?
Re: (Score:2)
It might actually be able to do that. Even ideas that are the kind you might come up with (if it's trained itself on you). What it would have trouble with is avoiding the silly/lousy/wildly inappropriate ideas. This is because it doesn't understand the context in which you are trying to come up with ideas.
OTOH, ask any writer. Ideas are everywhere. What's difficult is deciding which ideas are good.
Re: (Score:2)
It seems like you are adding a feature to Windows. Do you need assistance?
No, it can't. (Score:2)
"Microsoft Copilot Can Now Read Your Screen, Think Deeply, and Speak Aloud To You..."
Typical marketing techniques. The headline says that "Microsoft Copilot Can... Think Deeply", but it can't think at all. I suppose it can "speak aloud" (what would speaking otherwise than aloud mean?), and it can "read" in the sense of inputting data - but not as a human being reads, with comprehension.
Re: (Score:3)
Well, since Microsoft executives can't actually think, they feel that any substandard AI response is Deep Thinking.
Do not want! (Score:2)
I very much do not want this!
Re: Do not want! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
All the more reason to not GAF about Microsoft products!
Thanks Microsoft!!!! (Score:2)
Oh that's news! (Score:2)
Uninstall it (Score:2)
Dave, I cant let you do that (Score:2)
Next thing you know! (Score:3)
Another way to extract subscription fees (Score:2)
They give us a "free" version that can do some interesting stuff, and then roll out a bunch of extra-price "upgrades" that can do fancier stuff.
It's kind of like cars these days with subscriptions for heated seats or longer battery range or "0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds," all of which come at an extra subscription cost.
Well thanks, but no thanks. I'll make it just fine without the heated seats or the screen-reading AI.