In Praise of Microsoft’s ‘Prosaic’ AI Features

It was Microsoft’s turn today to talk about all of the ways it plans to make your life better with artificial intelligence. The various new features and products it announced felt a little—dare we say it?—bland. But that might be more than okay. 

In one case, it showed a new version of its Copilot assistant for Windows PCs that can observe what you’re doing on your computer, then coach you verbally in real time if you need help. To drive the point home, it showed a gamer asking Copilot how to make a digital sword in Minecraft and getting instantaneous instructions back on how to do so. That’s right—AI is going to help you play Minecraft better!