 "Microsoft renames Bing Chat as Copilot and adds new AI tools for services")
Microsoft has announced that the company's AI-powered Bing Chat and Bing Chat for Enterprise will be renamed "Copilot" at the Ignite developers conference on November 15. In addition to the name change, the American technology giant said that the Copilot experience will also be available on a standalone web page similar to ChatGPT. Users will still be able to access the chatbot from Bing and Windows. However, the site will make it more accessible as it can be accessed from any browser, not just through Bing.
Users need to sign in or create a Microsoft account to use the chatbot, while Bing Chat enterprise customers can use their Microsoft Entra ID to log in.
To further expand the reach of AI, Microsoft has announced an array of new features for services such as Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365, and Azure cloud service. Here are the details:
Copilot Studio
The Microsoft Copilot Studio is a low-code tool to customise Copilot for Microsoft 365 and build standalone copilots. It will allow users to create tailored versions of Copilot for specific tasks. The company said that the Copilot Studio brings together a set of powerful conversational capabilities—from custom GPTs, generative AI plugins, and manual topics.
Copilot Studio is now available for Microsoft 365 as a preview, while the full version is expected to roll out in the coming months.
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Recently, OpenAI announced a similar tool for users to create their own tailored versions of the ChatGPT chatbot. OpenAI said that its custom version of the chatbot would be able to combine instructions, information, and a combination of skills for a specific use case.
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Microsoft Teams
At the Ignite conference, Microsoft announced a slew of updates for its messaging service—Teams. The company has introduced an AI-driven noise reduction feature for video calls, reducing unwanted background noises and repetitive sounds. A new 'Decorate your Background' feature has also been introduced, allowing users AI-generated background enhancements.
Microsoft has also announced Teams immersive spaces, which will allow Teams users to create avatars to attend meetings within various 3D environments. This feature will be available on Teams starting January next year.
Other notable features coming to Microsoft Teams include customisable emoji reactions, group chat profile pictures, and the ability to forward chats.
Azure AI Speech
The company has announced a new Azure AI speech feature that enables users to create photorealistic talking avatar videos with text input. Microsoft said that the Neural text-to-speech Avatar models are trained by deep neural networks based on human video recording samples, and a text-to-speech voice model provides the voice of the avatar.
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The new feature is available in public preview as of today. It lets users generate videos of an avatar speaking by uploading images of a person they wish the avatar to resemble and writing a script.