In its first announcement of the year, Microsoft said on Thursday that it will introduce a ‘Copilot’ key to laptops and PCs that run on Windows 11, which was released in October 2021 and is the latest version of the tech giant’s Windows operating system (OS).
The Copilot button is the first ‘significant change’ to a Windows PC keyboard in nearly three decades when the Windows button was brought to the keyboards, the company noted.
“We believe Copilot will empower people to participate in the AI transformation more easily. It joins the Windows key as a core part of the PC keyboard and when pressed, it will invoke the Copilot to make it seamless to engage Copilot in your day to day (life),” Microsoft stated on its official blog.
It added that this new update will make 2024 ‘the year of the AI PC.’
Why the update?
As per the Satya Nadella-led tech firm, this is being done to move towards a ‘more personal and intelligent computing future where AI will be seamlessly woven into Windows from the system, to the silicon, to the hardware.’
The company said that the update is also because Copilot ‘inspired and empowered’ people.
Availability
Many of the new Windows 11 laptops that will be displayed at the upcoming (Jan 9-12) Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, will feature the new button on their keyboards, according to Microsoft. The laptops, however, will be available from late February onwards.
Microsoft Copilot
Launched in March 2023, Copilot is a chatbot that is powered by next-generation artificial intelligence (AI). It uses a combination of large large language models (LLM) with data in the Microsoft Graph and Microsoft 365 apps.
