- Microsoft has started testing copilot -looking to give the AI assistant a more clear personality
- The feature imbuels copilot with real -time expressions and movements
- Copilot -looking is part of a wider push to give Copilot a sustained identity
Microsoft has decided to put a face on his Copilot AI assistant with a new feature called Copilot look. Rolling to a limited set of users in the US, UK and Canada as part of Microsoft’s Copilot Labs, looks a kind of animated cloud and have a smile instead of just a separate voice. Microsoft hopes that looks will help make copilot more persistent as a tool for regular commitment, not just occasionally questioning.
It is an idea that fits how the company’s consumer -i -head, Mustafa Suleyman, imagines the future of Copilot. As he explained in a recent interview, Suleyman sees a more human -like copilot, one that carries what he calls “digital patina” when it ages, accrues history and personality based on time spent with a user.
Appearance — feature is an aspect of this idea. It provides copilot facial expressions and subtle animations to respond in real time when you speak or write. So you can see a smile when it provides information or a nod of encouragement when providing follow -up information. Maybe even a furrowed brow if you ask for something difficult.
The obvious comparison for any Microsoft AI personality trial is Klipy, but this is at least theoretically far from the old paper clip with eyeballs. Unlike Clippy, this assistant does not poop uninvited or ask if you are writing a letter. It will only talk to you when you start a conversation and it must exist quietly in the background. But it will remember what you are doing and that memory lasts.
Appearance and personality
It is the continuity of memory that allows copilot to become as personal as Suleyman wants. Combined with other recent copilotogrades such as voice and vision functions, Suleyman hopes that copilot will understand both what you want at the moment and who you are in general.
For now, the visual character doesn’t do anything crazy. It does not animate a full scene or waves its arms around like a Pixar sidekick. It’s more like a friendly desktop system that also edits your reports. Microsoft moves slowly here for a reason. Other platforms that are strongly leaning into character-based chatbots have encountered problems with users becoming too attached to an AI joint case.
The risk, of course, is that some people will start thinking about it that way. The goal is to earn a user’s confidence, but not so much that people forget that this is still a tool. But if Microsoft continues to walk down this path, it should draw some clear lines.
Appearance is a layer of presence and polish. It is also a preview of an AI that shows how it reacts to us with facial expressions and body language, something anyone can understand. But I still don’t want to see Copilot raise the eyebrows and roll my eyes sarcastically on requests, it seems mute.
