6 ms·

Microsoft is integrating Copilot into Windows 11

29 points by agomez314 3y ago

MacsHeadroom 3y ago
This seems neat, but is taking a lot of control away from the user and is a privacy nightmare. I would love to see open source and offline alternatives with the same purpose, as well as perhaps a Mac OS counterpart to this.
- alan-stark 3y ago
  Depending on your use case and willingness to hack, there are plenty of alternatives. E.g. take a look at this list: https://archive.is/x5K4o https://archive.is/x5K4o
behnamoh 3y ago
How is this not the biggest deal in the PC world? I've long been looking for a reason to switch from Mac, but two things kept me in Apple's ecosystem: 1. M1 + iPhone integration (the half-assed hands-off feature) 2. Shitty UI+UX on Windows + Ads At the same time, I have come to realize that our interaction with computers is going to get more and more natural thanks to large language models. If Windows Copilot doesn't get neutered just like Bing AI did, I'm seriously going to consider switching back to Windows. I get that Apple has different priorities, but I can't justify their inaction in this area over the past several years.
- wslh 3y ago
  From the security point of view I will stay with macOS. Windows is a "telemetry" mess and the product is unfinished from the UX point of view.
  - thefz 3y ago
    I don't particularly fancy either, but to do some real work I'd stick to Linux and Windows. MacOS nowadays looks like a toy OS, and gets too much in the way.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - wslh 3y ago
      I wonder how it feels like a toy OS. I just recently return to Apple after my initial experience with Apple II ;-) for general development I prefer Linux but greatly appreciate .NET framework and programming languages such as C# and F#.
- TremendousJudge 3y ago
  Why should it be the biggest deal in the PC world? To me this sounds like clippy and other personal helpers all over again.
- joshuakogut 3y ago
  Listen, neither of the two platforms are better or worse for general purpose use. I've had both and felt plenty comfortable with both and experienced issues on both like you will with any computer. Be platform agnostic.
- ztratar 3y ago
  If you're interested, we're building Co-pilot for Mac. https://embra.app https://embra.app :)
  - MacsHeadroom 3y ago
    Looks neat, but I would only want a privacy preserving offline version of this.
- shmoogy 3y ago
  I'm a huge proponent for generative AI, and this seems very interesting - especially with support for plugins - but a lot of the use cases for this kind of thing (specifically OS level integration) is still very fuzzy for me. I see value for less technically inclined users to be able to trigger actions they would be unable to find / adjust themselves - I'm very excited to be proven wrong though. And yes shame on Apple for being so far behind in this.
- wudangmonk 3y ago
  I guess that's one way to get around the labyrinth that is the new and improved windows UI. It will start off with pre-defined registry tweaks/powershell scripts, but it will continue expanding. My money is on less than 6 months before we hear about it deleting all of a users data or being tricked into ransomware.
- dboreham 3y ago
  > How is this not the biggest deal in the PC world? Because it's marketing hype BS?
- renewedrebecca 3y ago
  Seriously?
- exodontist 3y ago
  I agree. This is game changing. I've spent 30 years doing the same kind of operations manually over and over in windows file manager, cursing every time that the machine should know what I'm doing by now..
shp0ngle 3y ago
Microsoft is pushing all these trashy tabloid articles everywhere on Windows now, I think they can start generating them by GPT-4, they will save money for the news companies and people won't tell the difference anyway
- kbrkbr 3y ago
  My first thought was also: unfiltered marketing crap, and completely over the top. Starting with the sideswipe on Meta. Gentle reminder: Meta gives away LLaMa and Galactica under quite liberal non commercial license, OPT is even under MIT license if I recall correctly. I’m not a fan of either company btw.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
gigel82 3y ago
This was announced and somewhat discussed yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36045526 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36045526
FreeHugs 3y ago
The big question is if this will be a net positive or just adds more bloat. They tried the same with Bing and failed. Bing did not see any uptick even with the new AI features: https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/desktop/worldwide https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/deskto... My takeaway is that users are not as stupid and lazy as Microsoft thinks they are. They want a clean UI. And if they have to sign up for ChatGPT to get it, they will. ChatGPT already gained as many users as Bing has. With a clean UI, Bing might have already doubled it's userbase. Why doesn't Microsft just remove all the clutter from Bing and enjoy the benefits of having their search engine being the default on all the Windows tablets and laptops out there? Why waste it all and make every user change their search engine to Google?
- nicetryguy 3y ago
  Microsoft as a UI company historically has been absolutely god awful: Probably one of the main reasons Apple stayed in business before the iPhone. I wouldn't expect them to wake up one day and start making clean UIs.
- code_runner 3y ago
  I assume a few hundred project managers have jockeyed to get their stupid widget on the page and whoever is in charge now holds onto their team’s widget as their only real visible contribution to the company.
- pradn 3y ago
  I don't think regular people know that Bing has added AI features. Even if they knew, why would they not just use ChatGPT? ChatGPT also benefits from a fresh, cool brand name that Bing will never have.
  - williamstein 3y ago
    Answer: Bing provides GPT4 for free with integrated search to ground the response. It’s a totally different experience than free ChatGPT that some people would prefer.

29 points by agomez314 3y ago

This seems neat, but is taking a lot of control away from the user and is a privacy nightmare. I would love to see open source and offline alternatives with the same purpose, as well as perhaps a Mac OS counterpart to this.

alan-stark 3y ago
Depending on your use case and willingness to hack, there are plenty of alternatives. E.g. take a look at this list: https://archive.is/x5K4o https://archive.is/x5K4o

behnamoh 3y ago

How is this not the biggest deal in the PC world? I've long been looking for a reason to switch from Mac, but two things kept me in Apple's ecosystem: 1. M1 + iPhone integration (the half-assed hands-off feature) 2. Shitty UI+UX on Windows + Ads At the same time, I have come to realize that our interaction with computers is going to get more and more natural thanks to large language models. If Windows Copilot doesn't get neutered just like Bing AI did, I'm seriously going to consider switching back to Windows. I get that Apple has different priorities, but I can't justify their inaction in this area over the past several years.

wslh 3y ago
From the security point of view I will stay with macOS. Windows is a "telemetry" mess and the product is unfinished from the UX point of view.
- thefz 3y ago
  I don't particularly fancy either, but to do some real work I'd stick to Linux and Windows. MacOS nowadays looks like a toy OS, and gets too much in the way.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - wslh 3y ago
    I wonder how it feels like a toy OS. I just recently return to Apple after my initial experience with Apple II ;-) for general development I prefer Linux but greatly appreciate .NET framework and programming languages such as C# and F#.
TremendousJudge 3y ago
Why should it be the biggest deal in the PC world? To me this sounds like clippy and other personal helpers all over again.
joshuakogut 3y ago
Listen, neither of the two platforms are better or worse for general purpose use. I've had both and felt plenty comfortable with both and experienced issues on both like you will with any computer. Be platform agnostic.
ztratar 3y ago
If you're interested, we're building Co-pilot for Mac. https://embra.app https://embra.app :)
- MacsHeadroom 3y ago
  Looks neat, but I would only want a privacy preserving offline version of this.
shmoogy 3y ago
I'm a huge proponent for generative AI, and this seems very interesting - especially with support for plugins - but a lot of the use cases for this kind of thing (specifically OS level integration) is still very fuzzy for me. I see value for less technically inclined users to be able to trigger actions they would be unable to find / adjust themselves - I'm very excited to be proven wrong though. And yes shame on Apple for being so far behind in this.
wudangmonk 3y ago
I guess that's one way to get around the labyrinth that is the new and improved windows UI. It will start off with pre-defined registry tweaks/powershell scripts, but it will continue expanding. My money is on less than 6 months before we hear about it deleting all of a users data or being tricked into ransomware.
dboreham 3y ago
> How is this not the biggest deal in the PC world? Because it's marketing hype BS?
renewedrebecca 3y ago
Seriously?
exodontist 3y ago
I agree. This is game changing. I've spent 30 years doing the same kind of operations manually over and over in windows file manager, cursing every time that the machine should know what I'm doing by now..

shp0ngle 3y ago

Microsoft is pushing all these trashy tabloid articles everywhere on Windows now, I think they can start generating them by GPT-4, they will save money for the news companies and people won't tell the difference anyway

kbrkbr 3y ago
My first thought was also: unfiltered marketing crap, and completely over the top. Starting with the sideswipe on Meta. Gentle reminder: Meta gives away LLaMa and Galactica under quite liberal non commercial license, OPT is even under MIT license if I recall correctly. I’m not a fan of either company btw.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

gigel82 3y ago

This was announced and somewhat discussed yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36045526 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36045526

FreeHugs 3y ago

The big question is if this will be a net positive or just adds more bloat. They tried the same with Bing and failed. Bing did not see any uptick even with the new AI features: https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/desktop/worldwide https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/deskto... My takeaway is that users are not as stupid and lazy as Microsoft thinks they are. They want a clean UI. And if they have to sign up for ChatGPT to get it, they will. ChatGPT already gained as many users as Bing has. With a clean UI, Bing might have already doubled it's userbase. Why doesn't Microsft just remove all the clutter from Bing and enjoy the benefits of having their search engine being the default on all the Windows tablets and laptops out there? Why waste it all and make every user change their search engine to Google?

nicetryguy 3y ago
Microsoft as a UI company historically has been absolutely god awful: Probably one of the main reasons Apple stayed in business before the iPhone. I wouldn't expect them to wake up one day and start making clean UIs.
code_runner 3y ago
I assume a few hundred project managers have jockeyed to get their stupid widget on the page and whoever is in charge now holds onto their team’s widget as their only real visible contribution to the company.
pradn 3y ago
I don't think regular people know that Bing has added AI features. Even if they knew, why would they not just use ChatGPT? ChatGPT also benefits from a fresh, cool brand name that Bing will never have.
- williamstein 3y ago
  Answer: Bing provides GPT4 for free with integrated search to ground the response. It’s a totally different experience than free ChatGPT that some people would prefer.