What is Copilot? | Crushable

“What is Copilot? » This is the new question people are asking as interest in AI continues to skyrocket. Oddly enough, it wasn’t that long ago that people were asking, “What is ChatGPT?”

I tend to say that Copilot is a rival to ChatGPT, but it’s worth noting that due to Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI, the large language models (LLMs) that underpin Copilot Also power ChatGPT. (We’ll talk more about this later.)

As such, a better explanation is that Copilot is a competitor to Google Gemini (formerly Bard) and its ilk.

What is Copilot?

Copilot is an AI-powered tool that can be found on Windows 11 and other platforms. You can access it via an icon in the taskbar – or you can simply launch it from the Copilot keyboard key now available on some of the best Windows PCs.

Windows 11 Copilot appears most clearly on the right panel as users’ AI companion. With it, you can perform a wide range of tasks, including the following:

Hell, you can even ask Copilot questions based on text conversations on your phone (which you’ve paired with your PC).

My favorite, however, is Copilot’s integration with Paint. For example, with the AI ​​Assistant, you can quickly extract the background from image uploads with just the click of a button.

Credit: Microsoft

And these tasks don’t even scratch the surface. You can use Copilot to adjust your Windows 11 settings, including organizing your windows and enabling dark mode.

With Windows 11 on PC, you can use Copilot without paying any additional fees, provided you have a Microsoft account. You can also access the free tier of Copilot via copilot.microsoft.com on your browser. You can even download Copilot from Google game and the Apple App Store for a smooth and, once again, free mobile experience.

According to Microsoft, the free tier of Copilot gives you access to GPT-4 (and GPT-4 Turbo during off-peak hours). It’s worth noting that these are the same LLMs you’ll find on OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 apps

If you want to take it up a notch, you can also access Copilot for Microsoft 365 apps.

However, you’ll have to shell out $20 per month for a Copilot Pro subscription, which comes with a free trial as of this writing.

With Copilot Pro, you can experience the magic of AI in productivity apps like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Here is a non-exhaustive list of what Copilot Pro can do for you:

• Summarize email threads in Outlook

• Discussion summary in Microsoft Teams

• Transform existing documents into a complete presentation in PowerPoint

• Ask questions about an Excel dataset in natural language

• Get help with writer’s block in Word

OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo supports Copilot in the “Pro” subscription, even during peak hours. However, Microsoft recently announced that the new GPT-4o model is set to support Copilot Pro “soon.”

Access Copilot via Surface Laptops

Another way to access Copilot is through a set of devices that Microsoft calls “PC Copilot+,” starting with the recently announced Surface Laptop 7 and Surface Pro 11. Both have what’s called an NPU, a processor designed to facilitate AI processing.

Surface Pro 11
Credit: Microsoft

Microsoft calls them “the most powerful Windows PCs in the world” – and they have the most advanced Copilot features. Thanks to the NPUs in these PCs, Copilot enjoys a feature and performance advantage that the other Copilot-powered platforms mentioned above cannot offer.

According to Microsoft, with the aforementioned Copilot+ PCs, you can quickly edit a photo directly in File Explorer (for example, remove the background).

Credit: Microsoft

You can even get a summary via your notifications, whether it’s an SMS or an email. So if you tend to have a verbose friend who writes long paragraphs about their tragic love life, you can just get the “CliffNotes” instead.

Credit: Microsoft

One of the coolest features, and perhaps the most controversial, is Reminder, which is like pressing “CTRL + H” (or “Command + Y” for macOS users) on your entire digital life. Recall uses AI to record your PC activity throughout the day – and you can use a search bar to retrieve pieces of your past via natural language.

For example, if you came across a blue dress while shopping online, but forgot to bookmark it, you can use Recall to find it again.

Credit: Microsoft

Keep in mind that Mashable plans to review both the Surface Laptop 7 and Surface Pro 11, so we’ll let you know if they’re worth the investment for consumers interested in Copilot.

Copilot also benefits the enterprise sector (i.e. Microsoft 365 Business). Coders and developers also use it (i.e. GitHub Copilot).

But to be succinct, we’re focusing on Copilot aimed at the average consumer. As the AI ​​race continues to heat up, it’s only a matter of time before Microsoft adds more features to Copilot’s current feature list, so stay tuned for our coverage of upgrades.