Microsoft is announcing the incorporation of its AI-powered chatbot Copilot into yet another product of its Office 365 productivity solution. This time, the tool is being added to its note-taking application OneNote.
Copilot will help users draft, summarize, and fine-tune any text they would like to add to the applications such as to-do lists, reminders, speeches, and messages to be sent out. It will also be possible to add content from other solutions from the Microsoft ecosystem such as calendar appointments, e-mails, and Teams meeting recordings.
“Copilot can transform existing text by summarizing, rewriting, formatting, and adding visual context. Uplevel your digital notebook with natural language commands to reorganize your notebook, adjust formatting, and highlight what’s important”, Greg Mace, Microsoft’s product manager for OneNote commented in a blog post that provides further details about the release.
A video showcasing the product’s capabilities shows how it can quickly turn a text prompt into a fully developed idea. These rough drafts can be used as the starting point for lengthier and more detailed notes that can be easily formatted by using the AI model’s capabilities as well.
Mace emphasized that the company is ensuring the safety of the data added to the application. To this end, the user’s data will not be used to train the model while the organization’s data privacy policies and other protocols will be automatically applied to OneNote as well.
Microsoft (MSFT) did not share any details on when the AI-powered version of OneNote will be available for commercial customers that are already testing the preview version of Copilot.
Copilot is already available on the most popular software within the Office 365 solution such as Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.
Other Releases This Week Include Bing Chat for SwiftKey and New Edge Features
The Redmond-based tech company seems to be working hard to incorporate its AI model into all of its products. Just this morning, Microsoft also announced that its Bing Chat feature will be integrated into the SwiftKey solution for Android devices to make it easier for users to conduct internet searches instantly.
Microsoft did not disclose when the iOS version of this AI-powered SwiftKey version will be released.
Moreover, on a separate note, the company added a new feature to its Edge web browser that lets people share a group of tabs with others. The tool is called Workspaces and it works similarly to the Edge’s Collections feature that allowed users to maintain multiple related searches and websites in a single tab.
With Workspaces, all of those who get the link to the tab can make changes to the websites in real time. The administrator can view and limit what others can edit and keep track of who is making these changes.
Microsoft emphasized that the user’s data – such as their password or username – will not be shared with those who get the collaboration link while the content shared will be limited to the Workspace.
Microsoft is Betting a Lot on AI Despite its Controverted Inner Works
All of these new features from the company headed by Satya Nadella are the result of its four-year partnership with OpenAI – the software developer behind the popular ChatGPT and the powerful GPT-4 AI model.
However, the tech firm seems to be rolling out these AI-powered solutions at a relatively slow pace to make sure that they work as intended before they are made available to the general public.
In addition, there seems to be a growing concern that companies like Microsoft and others are conducting a huge experiment with AI that could turn out to have some unintended consequences for society.
Some countries like Italy have even banned solutions like ChatGPT recently due to concerns that the software does not have any safeguards in place to prevent minors from accessing it while they are also worried that OpenAI is using the private data from consumers to train its model.
The success of Microsoft’s AI bet will largely depend on the company’s ability to persuade regulators and the public that the technology is safe enough to be added to all of its popular and widely used products.
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