RIP Cortana: Windows 11 is getting a new AI 'personal assistant'

pcgamer.com:

At its Build event today, Microsoft announced that a new AI assistant called Copilot (as seen in a few Microsoft apps already) is coming to the Windows 11 preview build in June. I don't know if the introduction of Copilot as a Windows-wide «personal assistant» means that what's left of Cortana will be overwritten, but it may as well be, since Copilot serves the same function but with the ultra-hyped mirage of intelligence provided by a generative language model. Copilot can answer questions about Windows features, suggest Spotify playlists, summarize the contents of documents, and act on requests like «Can you send this logo to the Design Squad in Teams?» 

That latter task, which appears in the video demonstration above, could've been accomplished by opening Teams and dragging the image there instead, but I suppose the point was to show off Copilot's ability to process natural language requests, not to demonstrate efficient computer use. 

Microsoft's video isn't nearly as fun to watch as today's Adobe Photoshop AI demonstration, but if typing «show me the damned network adapter settings» actually takes me to the damned network adapter settings without making me wander around in the infuriating modern Control Panel trying to remember which button goes there, I may get some use out of Copilot. (The button is «More network adapter options» and I'll forget again before the next time I need it.)

«Just like you would with Bing Chat, you can ask Windows Copilot a range of questions from simple to complex,» wrote Windows head Panos Panay in a blog post today. «If I want to call my family in Cyprus, I can quickly check the local time to make sure I’m not waking them up in the middle of the night. If I want to plan a trip to visit