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| The upgraded Copilot experience on the web. Image Credits: Microsoft |
Index:
- Copilot’s Upgrades and Super Bowl Campaign
- Microsoft’s CMO Details Updates
- Celebrating Bing Chat’s First Anniversary
- Deucalion Enhances Copilot’s Balanced Mode
- Copilot Experiences Upgraded with Deucalion
- New Editing Capabilities in Copilot’s Designer
- Image Editing Feature for Copilot Users
- Upcoming Addition of Designer GPT to Copilot
- Controversy Over Designer’s Inappropriate Deepfakes
- Microsoft’s Response to Designer Controversy
- Microsoft’s AI Advancements Empower All
- Unaddressed Performance Issues with Copilot Pro
Microsoft's AI-powered chatbot and assistant suite, Copilot, is set to receive several enhancements, coinciding with a high-profile Super Bowl LVIII advertising campaign.
In an official Microsoft blog post, Yusuf Mehdi, the company's Chief Marketing Officer, detailed the forthcoming updates.
"Today marks the first anniversary of our foray into AI-powered experiences with Bing Chat," he penned. "Over the past year, we've gained a wealth of knowledge and witnessed the exponential growth of our Copilot experiences, with over 5 billion chats and 5 billion images generated to date... As Copilot becomes our unified platform for those seeking to maximize AI creation, we're rolling out additional... features."
We have also now fully shipped Deucalion, a fine tuned model that makes Balanced mode for @Microsoft Copilot richer and faster. pic.twitter.com/pGrrhVnTYS
— Jordi Ribas (@JordiRib1) February 7, 2024
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| Image Credits: Microsoft |
Copilot's web, Android, and iOS experiences now incorporate an upgraded AI model, Deucalion, and a more "streamlined look and feel," according to Mehdi. This includes a cleaner answer style and a carousel of suggested prompts for Copilot (e.g., "How would you explain AI to a sixth grader?").
Meanwhile, Designer in Copilot — a feature that utilizes generative AI models like OpenAI's DALL-E 3 to convert prompts into images — has received new editing capabilities.
All English-speaking Copilot users in the U.S., U.K., Australia, India, and New Zealand can now edit images directly within a chat — for instance, colorizing an item, blurring an image's background, or altering the image's style (e.g., to pixel art). Moreover, subscribers to Copilot Pro, Microsoft's premium Copilot plan priced at $20 per month, can adjust and regenerate images between "square" (i.e., portrait) and landscape formats.
Mehdi also announced the upcoming addition of Designer GPT to Copilot, which will provide a more "immersive, dedicated canvas" within Copilot for users to "visualize their ideas."
Earlier this year, Designer sparked controversy when malicious users, primarily from the image board 4chan, exploited the tool to produce and disseminate pornographic deepfakes of Taylor Swift across X (formerly Twitter). Despite Microsoft's claims of having safeguards in place to prevent inappropriate prompts, users discovered workarounds such as misspelling names and crafting image descriptions that, while not explicitly sexual, produced the same outcome.
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| Image Credits: Microsoft |
Microsoft responded last month by updating Designer to prevent the generation of celebrity images. However, as with all GenAI tools, it's anticipated to be an ongoing battle between malicious actors and providers.
"Microsoft's advancements in AI are in line with our corporate mission to empower every individual and organization on the planet to achieve more," Mehdi added. "With Copilot, we're democratizing our AI breakthroughs to help make the promise of AI a reality for all."
Mehdi did not comment on the performance issues associated with Copilot Pro, a frequent grievance among early subscribers.
Copilot Pro is intended to provide priority access to the underlying OpenAI models that power Copilot, even during peak usage times. However, users have reported exceptionally long generation times and other potential bugs. Windows Central suggests that the issue may stem from inadequate server capacity, but without an official statement, it's impossible to confirm.
In conclusion, Microsoft's AI-powered chatbot suite, Copilot, is undergoing significant enhancements, marking a new era in AI-powered experiences. Despite facing controversies and performance issues, Microsoft continues to innovate, aiming to democratize AI breakthroughs and empower every individual and organization. The journey of Copilot signifies the potential of AI in transforming the way we interact with technology. As Microsoft continues to refine and expand its AI capabilities, the future of AI-powered chatbots like Copilot looks promising. However, the challenges encountered serve as a reminder of the importance of ethical considerations and robust safeguards in the development and deployment of AI tools.