When you type in Microsoft Edge, chance is that you may get a Rewrite with Copilot option displayed at times. This option is part of the browser’s writing assistance feature, which is powered by AI.
In essence, it adds Copilot’s creative writing capabilities to text fields in Edge. It works by selecting text in a text field and activating the Rewrite with Copilot option that pops up.
You may also press the shortcut Alt-I after selecting text in Edge to launch Copilot. Edge loads a small Copilot window to display a new version of the selected text.
Note the scrollbar on the right. Depending on the height of the popup window, controls may not be displayed above the fold. You find options to change the tone, format, or length of Copilot’s creation there.
A click or tap on the replace button replaces the selected text with the newly created one.
An active Internet connection is required for the functionality, as the selected text is transmitted to Microsoft servers for processing.
Some Edge users may find this useful, others may have no use for it. Good news is that it can be turned off, if it is not something that you may want to use.
Here is how that is done.
Disable Rewrite with Copilot in Edge
- Select Menu > Settings, or load edge://settings/ in the address bar directly.
- Switch to the Languages submenu.
- Scroll down to Writing Assistance and toggle Use Compose (AI-writing) on the web to off.
The change takes effect immediately. A restart of Microsoft Edge is not required. You can restore the feature by setting the preference to on again.
Closing Words
Rewriting can be a useful feature. It is unclear how many Internet users already use AI to modify or even create texts. Clearly, there is the possibility that the feature is misused. In fact, AI is already used by spammers to create websites and fill these with textual content.
Edge users who do not need the rewriting option can turn it off in the preferences of the browser. The same feature is also accessible directly in Copilot. Many AI tools support rewriting text nowadays, including Google Gemini, DeepL, and Claude AI.
Microsoft introduced a range of features in Edge recently. From Search Suggestions in Edge’s titlebar to an upcoming RAM limiter feature.
Have you tried Edge recently?