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copilot

Microsoft’s New “Mico” Assistant Revives the Spirit of Clippy for the AI Era

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Nearly three decades after the beloved, and at times despised, paperclip named Clippy first blinked to life in Microsoft Office, the tech giant is trying once again to give your computer a face or, at least, a personality. This time, meet Mico, a new animated character for Copilot’s voice mode, designed to be as expressive as it is helpful.

“We all live in Clippy’s shadow in some sense,” Jacob Andreou, corporate VP of product and growth at Microsoft AI, told The Verge. “Clippy walked so that we could run.”

After Clippy’s tenure ended in 2001 with Office XP, Microsoft spent years experimenting with new forms of digital assistants. Cortana, introduced on Windows Phone in 2014, was the company’s next big bet, but despite its potential, the AI technology of the time couldn’t live up to the vision. Cortana quietly faded out, with its app discontinued on Windows 11 just a couple of years ago.

Now, Mico represents Microsoft’s modern attempt to rekindle that human-machine connection, one built for a world already familiar with Alexa, Siri, and ChatGPT.

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Mico has been quietly in testing for months. Unlike the static paperclip of yesteryear, it’s responsive, real-time, like a glowing orb that shifts as you talk.

“You can see it. It reacts as you speak to it, and if you talk about something sad, you’ll see its facial expressions react almost immediately. All the technology fades into the background, and you just start talking to this cute orb and build this connection with it.”

By default, Mico will appear in Copilot’s voice mode, though for the shy or skeptical, you can toggle it off. It’s launching first in the US, UK, and Canada, and it will take advantage of Copilot’s new memory system, which allows it to recall information it’s learned about you and your projects.

Beyond conversation, Microsoft wants Mico to become a guide. A new “Learn Live” feature transforms it into what the company calls a “Socratic tutor.” Instead of just providing answers, Mico leads users through concepts, using interactive whiteboards and visual prompts to encourage deeper understanding, something Microsoft hopes will appeal to students cramming for finals or adults tackling new skills, such as a language.

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Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman hinted earlier this year that giving Copilot a recognizable personality was a key part of the company’s vision.

“Copilot will certainly have a kind of permanent identity, a presence, and it will have a room that it lives in, and it will age. I’m really interested in this idea of digital patina. The things I love in my world are the things that are a little bit worn or rubbed down, and have scuff marks. Unfortunately, in the digital world, we don’t have a sense of age.”

Mico is also the star of Microsoft’s newest marketing push, with TV spots promoting Windows 11 PCs as “the computer you can talk to.” The company hopes this will help normalize the idea of speaking to your PC, something previous efforts like Cortana couldn’t quite achieve.

Of course, Microsoft knows nostalgia is a powerful tool. For all its new capabilities, Mico doesn’t entirely escape the long, animated shadow of Clippy. “It’s funny you mention Clippy; there is an Easter egg when you get to try Mico. If you poke Mico very, very quickly, something special may happen,” Andreou revealed.

Mico may look nothing like that bug-eyed paperclip, but the mission remains to make technology feel more like a companion.

windows

Microsoft Ends Support for Windows 10: Millions Urged to Upgrade

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A major shift is on the horizon for millions of PC users. Today, Microsoft will officially stop supporting Windows 10, ending nearly a decade of updates for one of the world’s most widely used operating systems.

Once that happens, Windows 10 devices will no longer receive security patches or bug fixes, leaving them increasingly exposed to cyber threats. Microsoft is urging users to make the jump to Windows 11, but not everyone can.

“The end of support for Windows 10 is shaping up to be a disaster for both consumers and the environment,” Nathan Proctor, senior director at U.S. consumer advocacy group PIRG, told the BBC. “We deserve tech that lasts,” Proctor, who also campaigns for the “right to repair” in the U.S, added.

Despite being nearly ten years old, Windows 10 remains a dominant player. Microsoft estimates that its software runs on more than 1.4 billion devices worldwide, and roughly 43% of them were still using Windows 10 as of mid-2025, according to Statcounter.

Inside the UK, consumer watchdog Which? Tech magazine believes as many as 21 million people could be affected by the change. Its September survey found one in four users planned to keep using Windows 10 past the deadline, while one in seven expected to buy a new computer.

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Lisa Barber, the magazine’s editor, cautioned that criminals “are going to target people, they are going to exploit weaknesses and they are going to want to steal your data.” Proctor and other consumer advocates also believe the upgrade could fuel unnecessary waste as working devices get scrapped.

“People are tired of living in a world filled with short-lived devices we can’t fix, or lose software support, or are otherwise forced into the waste stream.”

Without updates, Windows 10 machines won’t get new protections against viruses, ransomware, or malicious software.

Microsoft is offering two paths forward. You can either upgrade to Windows 11, which is free for those with compatible hardware, or sign up for extended security updates. This temporary patch program extends vital security coverage until October 2026.

Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi, Consumer Chief Marketing Officer, cautioned that companies may “find it challenging to maintain regulatory compliance with unsupported software.”

“Looking ahead, 2025 marks an important milestone for Windows. We saw the spirit of innovation on full display at CES in January, as the Windows ecosystem came together to unveil breakthrough technologies and introduce new Windows 11 and Copilot+ PCs. And that momentum is only growing, as new silicon technology, thoughtful hardware designs and on-device AI experiences give people more of a reason to upgrade their Windows PC. With AI becoming a more natural and helpful part of everyday life, 2025 continues to emerge as the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh.”

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Software developers are also likely to phase out compatibility over time, meaning older PCs could lose access to new features or apps.

“Many people will have to purchase new devices — despite the fact that their current computers work just fine.”

Windows 11, released in 2021, raised the bar for hardware requirements, especially around TPM 2.0 security chips, leaving many older PCs behind. It also prompts users to sign in with a Microsoft account, a change that some users find intrusive due to privacy concerns.

Even for those willing to upgrade, the process requires backing up data, verifying hardware compatibility, and potentially adjusting to a new interface.

Launched in 2015, Windows 10 was promoted as “the last version of Windows,” with rolling updates expected to keep it current indefinitely. For ten years, Microsoft issued regular updates that introduced new tools, accessibility improvements, and crucial security patches.

Now, as the curtain falls, millions face a decision whether to pay for short-term protection, buy a new device, or take their chances with an unpatched system.

social

Brazil’s Supreme Court Agrees To Hold Social Media Companies Liable For Unethical And Illegal User Content 

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Brazil’s Supreme Court justices have set a new standard, with a majority of them all agreeing to hold social media companies accountable for illegal and unethical postings by their users. This move was made during a time where social media is so vast that there’s a large population of users that are able to get away with posting illegal content without being punished. 

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The court made a ruling on two different cases in order to reach this understanding. The rise in reports from social media companies containing posts that involve fraud, violence among underage individuals, and child pornography.

Critics are claiming that this move could infringe on users freedom of speech, which is one of the biggest reasons that social media platforms struggle when it comes to censoring or removing content and reporting users. 

To combat the freedom of speech argument, the court has moved to hold the companies as a whole liable for the content, rather than just the individual poster. According to AP, Gilmar Mended became the sixth of the court’s 11 justices to vote for companies such as Meta, X, and Microsoft to be sued and pay fines for illegal content. 

While the voting is still ongoing, having a basic majority is all that’s needed for the overall measure to pass. 

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Justice André Mendonça has been the only dissenting voice so far, stating that “free speech on social media is key for the publication of information that holds powerful public institutions to account, including governments, political elites and digital platforms.”

Justice Flávio Dino cited recent cases in which school shootings in Brazil were simulated on social media and read out posts from a user who stated he was “happy watching families of dead children weeping, bleeding, dying.” 

“I think social media has not made humanity closer to what it has produced in best fashion,” he said.

This proposal can become law once the voting is finalized, however, Brazil’s Congress could pass a law to reverse the measure. Current legislation in Brazil says that social media companies can only be held liable if they do not remove content after a court order.

“Platforms need to be pro-active in regulating content. They need to adopt certain precautions that are not compatible with simply waiting for a judge to eventually issue a decision ordering the removal of that content,” said Alvaro Palma de Jorge, a law professor at the Rio-based Getulio Vargas Foundation.

skype

Microsoft To Shut Down Skype After 21-Years Of Service 

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This week, Microsoft announced that calling, video conferencing, and messaging service Skype will shut down on May 5th after 21-years of service. Microsoft is urging current Skype users to move to their other platform, Teams. 

Skype was known as one of the first services that allowed people to call each other without paying a phone company. In today’s modern world, there are a multitude of ways for people to video chat with one another, so the company has become rather obsolete. 

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“We’ve learned a lot from Skype over the years that we’ve put into Teams as we’ve evolved teams over the last seven to eight years,” Jeff Teper, president of Microsoft 365 collaborative apps and platforms, said to CNBC. 

“But we felt like now is the time because we can be simpler for the market, for our customer base, and we can deliver more innovation faster just by being focused on Teams.”

Microsoft said that current Skype users will be able to use their Skype credentials to log into, and use, Teams, and their contacts and chats will also be transferred over. Users will be able to export their Skype data. 

“This is obviously a big, big moment for us, and we’re certainly very grateful in many ways,” Teper said. 

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“Skype pioneered audio and video calling on the web for many, many people.”

Microsoft initially acquired Skype back in 2011 for $8.5 billion from eBay. At the time, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer said that:

“Microsoft and Skype together will bring together hundreds of millions or billions of consumers and empower them to communicate in new and interesting ways. At that point in time, Skype had about 170 million active users every month. 

Around the same time, Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime began to become very popular and widely used. 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, video chatting became the norm for communication, however, many workplaces utilized zoom, as well as traditional platforms like FaceTime. 

In 2023, Microsoft stated that Skype had around 36 million daily active users, a 40 million decrease from March 2020. 

“I think a good write-up of the history of the thing would mark the shift to mobile and cloud as a significant change in the communications category,” Teper said.

crowdstrike

CrowdStrike Says More Than 97% Of Windows Sensors Are Back Online 

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CrowdStrike stated that nearly all Microsoft Windows sensors are fully operational again after an update from the company dismantled computer systems all over the world, impacting airlines, banks, and more. 

CrowdStrive said “More than 97% of Windows sensors were online as of Wednesday evening. The systems are nearly fully restored after the company’s July 19 software update crashed millions of Windows-based devices and froze corporate networks,” according to CBS News. 

Microsoft estimated that the error brought down 8.5 million Windows devices. Fortune 500 companies are enduring more than $5 billion in losses, according to Parametrix, an insurance company. 

​​CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz apologized for the outage in a LinkedIn post Thursday. He reassured customers that the “company was doing its best to fully restore computer systems.”

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“I am deeply sorry for the disruption this outage has caused and personally apologize to everyone impacted. While I can’t promise perfection, I can promise a response that is focused, effective, and with a sense of urgency,” he wrote.

CrowdStrike said that they blame the failure on a bug that was in a program designed to identify problems before customers update their devices. 

“This resulted in problematic content data being sent to clients,” CrowdStrike said on its website.  

“The global outage highlights the fragility of interconnected  IT systems,” according to experts. 

Consulting firm McKinsey & Company said the “outage draws attention to the trade-offs IT organizations must make between updating their environments to protect against cyberattacks versus managing changes that can introduce instability.”

Delta Air Lines, said Thursday that “operations have returned to normal.”

ai

The New York Times Is Suing Microsoft And OpenAI Over Copyright Infringement 

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OpenAI and Microsoft are being sued by the New York Times over copyright infringement, alleging that the two companies’ artificial intelligence technology has illegally copied millions of articles from the Times to train AI services like ChatGPT.

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Amazon Invests up to $4 Billion in OpenAI Rival Anthropic in Exchange for Minority Stake

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On Monday, Amazon announced it will invest up to $4 billion into the artificial intelligence company Anthropic. In exchange, Amazon will gain partial ownership, and Anthropic will use the company’s cloud computing platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), more widely.

The growing relationship between the two firms is an example of how some large tech companies with extensive cloud computing resources are using those assets to strengthen their position in the artificial intelligence industry.

According to a statement released by Amazon, Anthropic will use AWS as its primary cloud provider, using the cloud platform to do most of its AI model development and research into AI safety. Anthropic will also have access to Amazon’s suite of in-house AI chips.

“AWS will become Anthropic’s primary cloud provider for mission-critical workloads, including safety research and future foundation model development. Anthropic plans to run the majority of its workloads on AWS, further providing Anthropic with the advanced technology of the world’s leading cloud provider.”

In addition, Anthropic has committed to making its AI models available to AWS users long-term, providing them with early access to features, including the ability to customize Anthropic models for their own purposes.

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“With today’s announcement, customers will have early access to features for customizing Anthropic models, using their own proprietary data to create their own private models, and will be able to utilize fine-tuning capabilities via a self-service feature.”

Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers already have access to Anthropic’s AI models through Amazon Bedrock, the tech giant’s storefront for AI goods. Bedrock not only supports Amazon’s own models but also those from third-party developers such as  Stability AI and AI21 Labs.

In a press release, the co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, said that his company is “excited to use AWS’s Trainium chips to develop future foundation models.”

“Since announcing our support of Amazon Bedrock in April, Claude has seen significant organic adoption from AWS customers. By significantly expanding our partnership, we can unlock new possibilities for organizations of all sizes as they deploy Anthropic’s safe, state-of-the-art AI systems together with AWS’s leading cloud technology.”

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Anthropic stated that Amazon’s minority stake would not alter the company’s corporate governance structure or its dedication to the ethical advancement of artificial intelligence.

“Our corporate governance structure remains unchanged, with the Long Term Benefit Trust continuing to guide Anthropic in accordance with our Responsible Scaling Policy. As outlined in this policy, we will conduct pre-deployment tests of new models to help us manage the risks of increasingly capable AI systems.”

Several cloud market leaders, like Microsoft and now Amazon, have made investments into artificial intelligence technology. OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, received $1 billion from Microsoft in 2019. Microsoft recently also invested $10 billion in OpenAI and is striving to integrate OpenAI’s technology into consumer-facing Microsoft products such as Bing.

This deal is Amazon’s most recent push into the artificial intelligence space to compete with industry leaders like Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google.

samsung

Alphabet Stock Drops After Samsung Considers Switching Default Search to Bing

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Samsung is considering ending its long-standing partnership with Google in favor of Bing as the default search engine for its devices. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, saw its stock drop by more than 3% in early trading Monday as a result of the news.

According to The New York Times, Google’s internal response to the possible change was “panic.” It is unclear whether Microsoft’s decision to incorporate ChatGPT into Bing was a driving factor in Samsung’s deliberation.

Since Google makes the bulk of its money from search ads, the development of AI search technology represents the greatest threat to Google’s search business in the past 25 years. As it stands, Google’s contract with Samsung generates around $3 billion in annual revenue. Google’s contract with Apple, which is up for renewal this year, brings in $20 billion in revenue.

Recent advances in AI have prompted Google to explore ways to incorporate AI into its flagship search product. According to internal reports, around 160 designers, engineers, and executives at Google are all working together in “sprint rooms” on a new project called Magi to build competitive AI-powered search features.

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Google is also working on a brand-new search engine that uses artificial intelligence more broadly. Plans for this new search engine are still in the early stages, and a release date has not been set. The future system will anticipate user searches, provide curated lists of potential purchases, and be more conversational, similar to Bing’s new search engine format. In the meantime, the goal of the Magi project is to enhance Google’s current search engine.

Jim Lecinski, a former Google vice president of sales and service and professor of marketing at Northwestern University, said the company has to now persuade users that it is as “powerful, competent and contemporary” as its competitors.

“If we are the leading search engine and this is a new attribute, a new feature, a new characteristic of search engines, we want to make sure that we’re in this race as well.”

During a test last week, Google employees quizzed the Magi project’s enhanced Google search on its conversational skills by asking it follow-up questions. Next month, Google plans to roll out the tools to the public, making them available to as many as 1 million users, with added functionality coming in the fall. According to The New York Times, the number will increase to 30 million users by the end of the year. The tools will only be available in the United States.

In a roadmap document, a Google executive revealed that the company is thinking about integrating artificial intelligence into Google Earth’s mapping features and providing a separate feature that lets users conduct music searches via conversation with a chatbot.

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A feature that uses AI to generate images within image results is also in the works, as is a feature that uses AI text conversations to teach users a new language. Users will also be able to ask a chatbot questions as they browse the web using a product called Searchalong.

Last year, Google made $162 billion from its search business. According to The New York Times, Google was taken aback by the prospect of Samsung, which sells hundreds of millions of smartphones with Google’s Android software every year, switching its default search engine.

In a statement to CNN, Google spokesperson Lara Levin said the company has always been committed to using AI to “improve the quality of our results” and “offer entirely new ways to search,” citing a feature rolled out last year that allowed users to search by combining images and words.

“We’ve done so in a responsible and helpful way that maintains the high bar we set for delivering quality information. Not every brainstorm deck or product idea leads to a launch, but as we’ve said before, we’re excited about bringing new AI-powered features to search and will share more details soon.”

Google has been involved in AI research for a long time, and its DeepMind lab in London is world-renowned. The company has also contributed to the development of autonomous vehicles and large language models used by chatbots. Due to concerns over the accuracy of AI, Google has been slow to integrate it into its search engine.

snapchat

Snapchat Launches AI Chatbot Powered by ChatGPT

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Snapchat is launching its own artificial intelligence chatbot powered by OpenAI’s viral ChatGPT. The feature, called My AI, will be available to Snapchat Plus subscribers starting this week.

In a blog post, Snapchat shared how My AI can help subscribers with various tasks and assist them in their day-to-day activities.

“My AI can recommend birthday gift ideas for your BFF, plan a hiking trip for a long weekend, suggest a recipe for dinner, or even write a haiku about cheese for your cheddar-obsessed pal.”

Snapchat cautioned, however, that the chatbot is “experimental” and may respond in unexpected ways.

“As with all AI-powered chatbots, My AI is prone to hallucination and can be tricked into saying just about anything. Please be aware of its many deficiencies, and sorry in advance!”

An AI hallucination is a term for when an AI presents false facts as the truth. In other words, it may confidently output completely made-up answers, leading to misinformation. At times, the answers may even be nonsensical.

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In an email to CNET, a Snapchat representative described how the company customized the latest version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology for its platform.

“My AI was trained to have a unique tone and personality that plays into Snapchat’s core values around friendship, learning, and fun. It has been trained to adhere to our trust and safety guidelines.”

The company’s community guidelines prohibit the chatbot from responding with explicit, inflammatory or violent content.

Snapchat will store all conversations between subscribers and their My AI to review and help improve product experience. Users can also submit direct feedback to Snapchat by pressing and holding any message. Snapchat advised users not to “share any secrets with My AI” and to not rely on it for advice.

Currently, the feature is only available to Snapchat Plus members. However, in an interview with the Verge, Snapchat founder and CEO Evan Spiegel said the goal is to make the feature available to all of Snapchat’s 750 million monthly users.

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Snapchat is the latest in a string of companies to integrate artificial intelligence into their platforms. Google recently revealed its ChatGPT contender Bard. The chatbot infamously made a factual error during an ad demo, costing Google a $100 billion drop in market value.

The same week, Microsoft announced it would integrate ChatGPT into its search engine Bing.

Since Snapchat is a messaging service, Spiegel believes it is uniquely positioned to create a personable chatbot. Spiegel told the Verge, “The big idea is that in addition to talking to our friends and family every day, we’re going to talk to AI every day.”

Unlike other AI chatbot integrations on platforms, Snapchat’s My AI interface suggests the chatbot is intended to be more than just a productivity tool. The chatbot has an avatar, and its “user profile” resembles a regular Snapchat friend profile. Users can even change the chat’s wallpaper.

The current price for a subscription to Snapchat Plus is $3.99 per month.

bard

Google’s AI Chatbot ‘Bard’ Makes a Factual Error, Costing Alphabet $100 Billion in Market Value

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Alphabet, the parent company of Google, saw a $100 billion drop in market value after Bard, its competing chatbot to Microsoft’s ChatGPT, made an error in an ad containing a demo.

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