News Edge browser's new Copilot Mode lets you talk to AI about your tabs if you opt in — but it's only free for 'a limited time

[Admin]

Microsoft is launching an AI Copilot Mode in the Edge browser, allowing users to talk to the AI about their browser and allow Copilot to see across tabs.

Edge browser's new Copilot Mode lets you talk to AI about your tabs if you opt in — but it's only free for 'a limited time : Read more

 

[Alex/AT]

Talking about tabs is all good, but can I put something on AI's tab?

 

[Jagar123]

This seems like a privacy nightmare. They'll just use the data gathered to sell us more ads.

 

[John Nemesh]

Yet another ad for Firefox. The more they push co-pilot, the stronger the backlash will be.

 

[Dementoss]

I use Vivaldi, Opera and Firefox, in that order of priority. This news about Edge, means it will continue not to get a look-in.

 

[Thunder64]

"Features" that nobody asked for.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

While the feature is free now, Microsoft says that will only be the case for "a limited time,"

And that's the problem with all "AI" right now: getting people to pay for it, and people aren't.

 

[baboma]

>With further permission, you can allow Copilot to look at all of your tabs for it to get more information about whatever project you're working on. That will let you make comparisons or answer questions without constantly cycling between tabs.

Above is a good indicator of AI features that will go into Win12. MS' attempt at search assistant, supplanting Google Search, hasn't borne fruit, so browsing assistant would be the logical alternative. What Copilot is doing above is similar to what some are already doing with Perplexity and other chatbots today.

As outlined above, it would be a substantial boost to productivity. OTOH, privacy would be a concern--you wouldn't want it to have access to your pr0n browsing habits, say. An appropriate use would be to have Copilot enabled on demand for silo'ed (directed) searches, and disabled for general browing. We'll see if MS plays ball.

>Additionally, Copilot in Edge is also getting voice recognition

Chatbot going multimodal is sure to be slated as a freemium feature. Speech-to-text is the obvious first step. Having NPU isn't a requirement, but would be helpful in mitigating processing. Chalk up another incentive for Win12 Copilot+ req.

As far as being "free for limited time", it's hype to play up the value. Dollars to donuts Chrome will have the same feature for free. MS is looking for ways to monetize AI (and Windows services), and it will certainly have options. But this won't be one of them.

 

[abufrejoval]

This seems like a privacy nightmare. They'll just use the data gathered to sell us more ads.

They gather your data to sell it. To anyone interested for any purpose.

If it was only ads, it almost wouldn't matter, since you can block those. But ads represent almost the most harmless use you can imagine and that's why that tale gets repeated: to cover the fact that it's open to anyone for anything.

 

[rluker5]

I'm going to leave on vacation in a couple weeks. When I was booking flights I was going through Expedia because it comes up quick on search and usually had good prices. It did again, but after I entered my payment info to buy the pair of flights it refreshed and asked me to OK a $200 per person increase. So I tried a slightly different flight and it did it again. Tried Travelocity and it did the same. Last second price changes are unacceptable to me so I went straight to the airlines and got a better deal without the bait and switch.

If I had an AI book it I would have been pissed when I saw an extra $400 on my bill. No thanks. I'll do my internet purchases myself. First time seeing that, but it probably won't be the last.

That and is there a way to turn off autofill on Edge? That popup is a lot more trouble than it is worth.

 

[rluker5]

>With further permission, you can allow Copilot to look at all of your tabs for it to get more information about whatever project you're working on. That will let you make comparisons or answer questions without constantly cycling between tabs.

Above is a good indicator of AI features that will go into Win12. MS' attempt at search assistant, supplanting Google Search, hasn't borne fruit, so browsing assistant would be the logical alternative. What Copilot is doing above is similar to what some are already doing with Perplexity and other chatbots today.

As outlined above, it would be a substantial boost to productivity. OTOH, privacy would be a concern--you wouldn't want it to have access to your pr0n browsing habits, say. An appropriate use would be to have Copilot enabled on demand for silo'ed (directed) searches, and disabled for general browing. We'll see if MS plays ball.

>Additionally, Copilot in Edge is also getting voice recognition

Chatbot going multimodal is sure to be slated as a freemium feature. Speech-to-text is the obvious first step. Having NPU isn't a requirement, but would be helpful in mitigating processing. Chalk up another incentive for Win12 Copilot+ req.

As far as being "free for limited time", it's hype to play up the value. Dollars to donuts Chrome will have the same feature for free. MS is looking for ways to monetize AI (and Windows services), and it will certainly have options. But this won't be one of them.

Sounds like MS to make speech to text an AI feature when it has been around since Intel started putting GNA into chips in 2018. They even made a standalone GNA for Alexa devices. And somehow my 2015 Dell Venue 11 pro 7140 has a microphone button on the popup keyboard that already does voice to text in Edge. It just doesn't do copilot yet.

Don't need AI pc for pre AI pc features, but it will probably be software locked somehow.

And that need for monetization for AI to become financially viable is a pretty dark cloud looming on the horizon.

 

[baboma]

>Sounds like MS to make speech to text an AI feature when it has been around since Intel started putting GNA into chips in 2018.

I should've said voice recognition, which is related but isn't same as speech-to-text. Yes, voice rec in Windows went back a-ways. Vista had dictation features. But voice input was never a thing for Windows.

That changes with the advent of chatbot that takes natural language as input. Voice interface is fairly critical, not just for input but also output. All chatbots offer it, with most using freemium model.

>And that need for monetization for AI to become financially viable is a pretty dark cloud looming on the horizon.

MS is already making money from AI products, but mostly on the commercial side. To cite only one example, its Intelligent Cloud rev increased by $17.5B from FY2023 to '24. Its stocks have been riding high on AI revenue, not just AI hype.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor/earnings/fy-2024-q4/intelligent-cloud-performance

On the consumer side, freemium is already a proven model for many AI companies. It's already in Win11, just that there hasn't been any compelling AI feature. Voice interface may or may not go freemium, but it would certainly be a big selling point for Win12.

 

[Geef]

Maybe set it up on a laptop or something and put in your name as John Smith and address of 177A Bleecker Street in New York City. Let them track that.

(Location of Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum.)