Get ready to piss yourself off in a whole new way as you accidentally open the Windows Start menu with an accidental keystroke to summon an AI determined to paint your picture. Microsoft has announced plans to introduce a dedicated AI button on keyboards for Windows PCs, the first major change to their keyboards since the Windows key was added nearly 30 years ago.
The new button is officially known as the Copilot key, and ties in with the AI already integrated into Bing Search, Microsoft Office and Windows 11. flying characters, among other things, causing understandable consternation among developers.)
Pressing the button will pop up Copilot, which Microsoft suggests can be used to help you create photos, create songs and clean up writing, as well as adjust your computer’s settings such as Also in further tasks asked. It basically looks like a more modern version of Microsoft’s previous virtual assistant, Cortana (remember it?), though it’s tied to an even more dystopian and questionable nature of AI. I’m not a fan of AI anyway, but I can’t really imagine asking my computer to play a song for me while I’m working – or just take over writing an email for me.
Microsoft’s blog, in fact, reads like the dystopian-scripture-masquerading-as-friendly-corpospeak you might hear from robots planning to replace the human race as efficiently as possible, because they Encouraging that Copilot Key will “empower people to participate. More easily in the AI transformation.”
“It will not only simplify people’s computing experience, but make 2024 the year of the AI PC,” he added, describing Copilot as “your everyday AI companion for work and life” – I’m assuming in that kind of voice. Used in advertisements for those smart toys that eventually get emotional and commit serious murders in horror movies.
Microsoft itself compares the addition of the Copilot key to the introduction of Windows Key all those years ago, saying, “We see this as another transformative moment in our journey with Windows where Copilot enters the world of AI on the PC. ” An interesting comparison with a button that I bet most people only think about on days when it accidentally knocks them out of the game.
Like it or not, the Copilot key is apparently here. Microsoft says the button will start appearing on new Windows 11 PCs later this month and in the spring, including its own Surface machines.