Microsoft has begun hinting at ways to further integrate AI capabilities into Windows 11 ahead of a major AI-focused update to the OS. The software giant began testing a “new experience” for Copilot on Windows this week. This includes his Copilot, an animation that appears on your taskbar when you copy text or images.
“The Copilot icon changes appearance and animates to show you that Copilot can help you,” Microsoft explains in a blog post. “Hover your mouse over the Copilot icon to see a menu of actions you can perform, such as summarizing or explaining the copied text.”
I tested the experience on the latest Windows 11 Canary build and it worked well for text summarizing what I copied. The icon also animates when you copy the image, but this feature is not ready for testing yet. You will also eventually be able to drag and drop images onto his Copilot icon on the taskbar and type into the prompt. Copilot tells you what’s in an image, so it might even help you edit images in the future.
In addition to the Copilot changes, Microsoft also confirmed that the Notepad app will soon integrate Copilot AI. You can select text and right-click to “Explain with Copilot.” Decipher text, code segments, or log files.
Microsoft has been gradually adding AI features to Windows 11 in recent months, including the main Copilot. It’s all part of a broader effort to position Copilot as Microsoft’s leading AI brand while preparing for a major feature update for Windows. Microsoft wants to make 2024 the “year of the AI PC” and has already added a dedicated Copilot key to keyboards.
Intel, Qualcomm and others have hinted at an AI-focused Windows “refresh” in 2024, but Microsoft has yet to officially confirm its plans. “What’s unique about Copilot within Windows is that it’s aware of the context the user is in,” Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft executive’s vice president and consumer chief marketing officer, said in an interview. I am. The Verge this week. “You can do richer things because you can understand the page.”
Microsoft’s latest test builds of Windows 11 make Copilot more context-aware, and the company also plans to take advantage of the NPU hardware that has recently begun appearing in Windows laptops.
Windows 12 was rumored to be Microsoft’s big AI push, and it looks like that push will be part of a Windows 11 update later this year. Microsoft is calling this update “24H2,” an annual feature update that will be released in late 2024. We’re likely to hear a lot more about Microsoft’s AI plans in Windows in the coming months as the company continues to test how it will be overhauled. Windows is gearing up for the “Year of the AI PC.”
