Barely a week goes by without another AI announcement from Microsoft. It all began with the integration of ChatGPT into Bing Search. Called Bing Chat, it allows Bing users to communicate with a custom version of ChatGPT directly from the Bing website.
Exactly a year later, AI has found its way into a wide range of Microsoft products. From Windows Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot to integration in Microsoft Paint and Office. Soon, AI will also have its place in Notepad and many other company products.
Microsoft even started to rename products, Microsoft Edge for mobile to Microsoft Edge: AI Browser, to highlight its commitment and maybe benefit from the hype surrounding AI as well. Heck, there will even be a dedicated Copilot key on upcoming keyboards.
Microsoft seems hellbent to introduce AI into all of its products. Some products certainly benefit from an integration, especially if it is optional. It is up to each Bing user to use Bing Chat or ignore it.
The same can not be said for all products, especially if the integration can not be ignored easily or turned off. Microsoft is forgetting an important aspect in its rush to integrate AI into all of its products: does it benefit the user?
Lack of use cases
The progress that AI has made in the past year is astonishing. It is important that companies create products and tinker around with things. Find out what works and what does not.
When you look at Microsoft, you may notice repeating patterns. The integrations of an AI image creator in Paint or the integration of an AI rewrite tool in Notepad are two examples.
These tools exist already. Bing Chat can be used to create images. The integration in Paint makes it comfortable to access for users of the app, but it does not add anything beyond that to the tool.
Similarly, Cowriter in Notepad exists already in Microsoft Edge. Even worse, the Edge tool is more powerful. Cowriter is still in development, but it is unclear if Microsoft is going to add functionality to it before releasing it to the public.
These integrations benefit a small number of users only, at the very best. While they may introduce others to AI tools made by Microsoft, they annoy others at the same time.
Do we really need rewriters in all text processors or image generators in all image editors? The question exaggerates the issue, clearly, but there is a chance that Microsoft is pushing AI too much. If more and more users get annoyed, it could certainly backfire.
Windows Copilot: the perfect example
Windows Copilot, for instance, is just a version of Bing Chat at the moment. Microsoft announced the integration into Windows and Windows-specific tools and options,, but there are just a handful at the moment. Yes, this could be turned into a personal helper for all things Windows, but it is not at this point.
So, almost everyone gets Windows Copilot who runs a modern Windows system. It is difficult to turn off, one can only hide it using built-in options, and it does not work too well at the moment.
It requires an Internet connection and getting answers takes a couple of seconds usually. It is slow and not very helpful. Again, this may change in the future, and it hopefully does, but it feels pressed into Windows at the moment.
Closing Words
Microsoft’s enthusiasm when it comes to AI is understandable. It is a huge business already and will only grow in the future. The company is at the forefront, thanks to its partnership with Open AI.
Microsoft executives do have to make sure that they are not carried away though. It is one thing to launch great AI products that benefit users, another to plaster AI on everything.
Now You: what is your take on AI and AI products?
I’m (still) running Windows 7 and should I use a latest Windows OS that I certainly wouldn’t refer to the Edge browser, hence no idea about AI browser integration.
Presently I just don’t call upon AI tools, it just doesn’t trigger any interest.
Globally speaking I can imagine AI assistance in some areas, but definitely not in others, of which any domain related to user creation, be it artistic be it the leader of our very first form of expression : writing, not to mention speaking (imagine real-time speech “improvement” when phoning, i.e.). I just cannot accept writing i.e. a comment (as now, right here) and having a whatever AI assistant “improve” my wording!
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Expression is tied and should stay tied to our very personality which goes further than what we say/write when it includes the *way* we say it, and mistakes, besides perhaps spelling and basic, are part of our identity, not to mention that a reconfigured rhetoric may very well not fit with what we meant to express : think of authors who get annoyed when the editor suggests/imposes remakes of paragraphs!
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My feeling is that there is presently an AI hysteria and that too much of anything is seldom a good thing. Any tool is seldom valuable in a universal approach : a sword is not appropriate when scissors are, no more than a car when the destination is a block further.
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Last but not least : as long as AI assistance remains an option, why not? Otherwise, imposed, definitely a parasite, IMO. But is it in my imagination that globally, in real life as in computing, one’s preferences are increasingly de-considered?
I think we see a Gold Rush moment currently. Everyone jumps on the AI bandwagon and adds AI to their products. It is fine, as you said, as long as this is optional and does not extract user data automatically.
Many times, these services are not all that useful at the moment. Windows Copilot comes to mind as a major example. It lacks local options. This may come with this year’s update, but at the moment it is not a great product.