Thursday, January 9, 2025
-4.7 C
New York

Microsoft brings new design-focused features to Copilot

Copilot, Microsoft’s family of AI-powered chatbots and assistants, is getting a few new upgrades timed with a flashy Super Bowl LVIII ad campaign.

In a post on the official Microsoft blog, Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s chief marketing officer, outlined what users can expect.

“Today marks exactly one year since our entry into AI-powered experiences for people with Bing Chat,” he wrote. “In that year, we’ve learned so many new things, and seen the use of our Copilot experiences explode with over 5 billion chats and 5 billion images created to date . . . Now with Copilot as our singular experience for people looking to get more out of AI creation, we’re introducing further . . . capabilities.”

The Copilot experience on the web, Android and iOS now features an improved AI model, Deucalion, along with a more “streamlined look and feel,” Mehdi said — with a cleaner style for answers and a carousel of suggested prompts to feed Copilot (e.g., “How would you explain AI to a sixth grader?”).

Designer in Copilot, meanwhile — a tool that taps generative AI models like OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 to turn prompts into images — has new editing capabilities.

Microsoft Copilot

The upgraded Copilot experience on the web. Image Credits: Microsoft

All English-speaking Copilot users in the U.S., U.K., Australia, India and New Zealand can now edit images in-line in the flow of a chat — for example, colorizing an object, blurring an image background or changing the style of the image (e.g., to pixel art). And subscribers to Copilot Pro, Microsoft’s $20-per-month premium Copilot plan, can resize and regenerate images between “square” (i.e., portrait) and landscape.

Coming soon to Copilot is Designer GPT, Mehdi said, which will offer a more “immersive, dedicated canvas” inside Copilot where users can “visualize their ideas.”

Designer caused quite a stir earlier this year when malicious users, mostly from the image board 4chan, used the tool to create pornographic deepfakes of Taylor Swift — and spread them across X (formerly Twitter). Designer had guardrails designed to prevent inappropriate prompts, Microsoft claimed — but users found loopholes like misspelling names and describing images that didn’t explicitly use sexual terms but generated the same result. 

Last month, Microsoft said that it addressed the Designer loopholes by making it impossible to generate celebrity images. But, as with all GenAI tools, it’s likely to be a never-ending cat-and-mouse game between bad actors and vendors.

“Microsoft’s advancements in AI align with our company mission to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more,” Mehdi continued. “With Copilot, we’re democratizing our breakthroughs in AI to help make the promise of AI real for everyone.”

Mehdi didn’t address the performance issues with Copilot Pro — a common complaint among early subscribers.

Copilot Pro is supposed to come with priority access to the underlying OpenAI models powering Copilot even during peak times, but users report dealing with exceptionally long generation times and other, potentially related bugs. Windows Central speculates that the root of the problem is insufficient server capacity, but lacking official comment, it’s impossible to know for certain.

source

Hot this week

Banking as a Service: Meaning, Examples, Benefits and Future

The push for open banking has led to a...

Best fintech blogs and websites

Fintech (financial technology) has been an interesting part of...

What is Fintech?

Fintech: A term used to refer to innovations in...

How to buy shares online

Buying shares online in India has come a long...

Is it worth investing in life insurance over 60?

Is it worth investing in life insurance over 60? As...

JPMorgan Sues Over Viva Wallet Dispute: What You Need to Know

Understanding the Legal Battle Between Two Financial Giants Highlights: JPMorgan...

DLocal Secures UK License: A Game-Changer for Latin American Payments

How DLocal's UK License Expands Its Reach in the...

TransUnion Acquires Monevo: A New Era for Financial Services

Transforming the Lending Landscape with Enhanced Consumer Insights Highlights: TransUnion's...

DailyPay Names Former Uber CFO Nelson Chai Executive Chair

Nelson Chai to Lead Strategic Growth at DailyPay Highlights: Leadership...

Equiniti Appoints Dan Kramer as CEO of Global Shareholder Services

Dan Kramer to Lead Unified Global Shareholder Services Division Highlights: ...

NomuPay Raises $37 Million to Unlock Asian Markets

Dublin-based Fintech Expands Unified Payments Platform Across Asia Highlights: $37...

How Ethical Guidelines Can Enhance Climate Research

Exploring the Impact of Ethical Frameworks on Climate Science...

CFPB Takes Action Against Experian: A Deep Dive into Consumer Rights

Understanding the Impact of CFPB's Lawsuit on Credit Reporting...
Exit mobile version