Microsoft has started rolling out a new feature for its Copilot AI Assistant on Windows that will allow the bot to directly read files on your PC, then provide a summary, locate specific data, or search the Internet for additional information.
The co-pilot has already been aggressively integrated into Microsoft 365 and Windows 11 as a whole, and this last feature sounds, at least on paper, like a serious privacy issue. After all, who would want an AI to take a look at all their files and upload that information directly to Microsoft?
Well, luckily, Copilot won't be randomly snooping around. How he saw it @Leopeva64 in X (formerly Twitter), you must manually drag and drop the file into the Copilot chat box (or select the 'Add a file' option). Once the file is in place, a request can be made to the IA; the suggestion provided by Leopeva64 is to simply “summarize”, which Copilot proceeds to do.
One more step towards making Copilot truly useful
I admit it, I'm a Copilot critic. Maybe it's just because I'm a jaded career journalist with a lifetime of technological savvy and a neurodivergent inclination toward unhealthy perfectionism, but I've never seen the value of an AI assistant built into my operating system of choice; However, this is the kind of Copilot feature you could really use.
The summary option alone seems pretty useful – more than once, I've been handed a voluminous PDF with embargoed details about a new tech product, and it would be pretty cool. No having to sift through pages and pages of dense legal and tech jargon just to find bits of information that are actually relevant to TechRadar readers. Summarizing documents is already something that ChatGPT and Adobe Acrobat AI can do, so it makes sense that Copilot, an AI tool that is specifically positioned as an aid in the system, can do it.
While I personally prefer to be the master of my own Google search, I can see that the web search capabilities are also very useful for many users. If you have a file that contains partial information, asking Copilot to “fill in the blanks” could save you a lot of time. Copilot appears capable of reading a variety of different file types, from simple text documents to PDFs and spreadsheets. Given the flexible nature of modern AI chatbots, there are potentially many different things you could ask Copilot to do with your files, although it apparently can't scan files for viruses (at least not yet).
If you're interested in getting your hands on this feature yourself, hopefully you won't have to wait long. While it doesn't appear to be widely available yet, Leopeva64 notes that it appears that Copilot's most recent new ability is “rolling out gradually,” so it will likely start appearing for a longer time. windows 11 users over time.
The Edge version of Copilot will apparently also have this feature, as Leopeva notes that it is currently available in the Canary prototype of the browser; If you want to check it out, you just have to register on the Edge Insider Program.
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