Enlarge / The Microsoft Copilot logo. (credit: Microsoft)

On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that Bing Chat—its famously once-unhinged AI chatbot—has been officially renamed "Microsoft Copilot." The company also announced it will support OpenAI's recently released GPTs , which are custom roles for its ChatGPT AI assistant.

The rebranding move consolidates Bing Chat into Microsoft's somewhat confusing "Copilot" AI assistant naming scheme, which has a lineage that began with GitHub Copilot in 2021. In March this year, Microsoft announced Dynamics 365 Copilot , Copilot in Windows , Microsoft Security Copilot , and Microsoft 365 Copilot . Now Bing Chat is just "Microsoft Copilot"—its sixth copilot so far. Pretty soon, Microsoft will need a Branding Copilot to keep them all straight.

Regarding the naming scheme, Microsoft customer Amit Malik took to X and wrote , "I love Microsoft, but this whole copilot thing is becoming more confusing than it should be. Microsoft Copilot, Windows Copilot, M365 Copilot, then all the m365 apps, D365 copilot and so on. AI was supposed to simplify, not otherwise." Note that Malik wrote that in September—nearly two months before the recent announcement.

Enlarge / A PC running Windows 11. (credit: Microsoft )

Today, Microsoft is beginning to roll out a major batch of new Windows updates , including its Copilot generative AI assistant, wide-ranging improvements for built-in apps, and other user interface tweaks. Normally, updates of this magnitude would only arrive in one of Windows' big yearly feature updates, but the company said last week that all of these changes would be added to the current revision of Windows 11, version 22H2.

In a blog post released today , Microsoft said that Windows is getting its yearly update later this year but that the Windows 11 2023 Update won't include new features or fixes. Instead, it's what Microsoft calls an "enablement package," essentially an update that will bump up the version number without making any other changes to the underlying code.

Microsoft says that this 23H2 update "will be cumulative with all the newly announced features," so any new install media created with Windows 23H2 will include Copilot and all the other updates that Microsoft is rolling out today. It's just that the new features and the new version number are technically arriving separately instead of being grouped together as they would have been in past years. Microsoft says people running Windows 11 22H2 can get most of the new features by manually installing the optional October update that's available in Windows Update today or by enabling the "get the latest updates as soon as they’re available" toggle in Windows Update. The non-optional November update will enable all these features on all Windows 11 PCs.

Enlarge / Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella formally announces the ready-for-the-public version of Copilot. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

NEW YORK—Microsoft will be releasing its next major Windows update with "over 150 new features" later this month, the company announced in a presentation today. The update furthers Microsoft's crusade to tuck generative AI into all of its products, though, as usual, it makes a ton of smaller iterative changes to the OS and its apps.

Microsoft says these new features "start becoming available September 26," which could mean that some are available on that day and others are available later. It could also be a reference to Microsoft's standard practice of rolling major Windows updates out to smaller groups of users first, checking for problems, and expanding the rollout to larger groups afterward.

Curiously, Microsoft says this version of Windows will still be called "22H2," where we'd normally expect it to be released as the 23H2 update. Microsoft hasn't formally announced any changes to its " annual feature update cadence ," though these days, it seems to run counter to the company's " release new features whenever they're ready and we feel like doing it " policy.

Enlarge (credit: Microsoft)

A few months ago, Microsoft previewed Microsoft 365 Copilot , a new service that promised to integrate generative AI features into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and the other productivity apps formerly known as Microsoft Office . Among other things, Copilot promises to automate the creation of documents and emails, summarize meeting notes, and assist in the analysis of Excel data.

Microsoft has just announced pricing for the Copilot features, and it isn't cheap. Copilot will cost an extra $30 per user per month on top of whatever your business is already paying for Microsoft 365—in many cases, this will double or even triple your monthly costs. Copilot can be added to Microsoft 365 Business Standard or Premium ($12.50 and $22 per user per month, respectively) or to Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 accounts for enterprises ($36 or $57 per user per month). It can't be added to the cheaper Microsoft 365 Business Basic plan or to any home plans.

The relatively high cost is likely related to the high server costs for running these kinds of generative AI models. Copilot also draws context from the other emails, documents, and other files in your business's Microsoft 365 cloud, so each business that Microsoft supports will have a slightly different data set that it will need to be able to draw from.

Enlarge / Windows Copilot is an AI-assisted feature coming to Windows 11 preview builds. (credit: Microsoft)

Last month, Microsoft announced that it would continue its put-ChatGPT-in-everything adventure with a new Windows 11 feature called Copilot . The company added generative AI to Edge and to the Bing-powered taskbar Search field months ago, but Copilot promises to be the most visible and hard-to-ignore version of Microsoft's big AI push in its most visible and hard-to-ignore product.

This week's Windows Insider Preview build for Dev channel users, build 23493, will be the first to enable Copilot for public testers . After installing the update, preview users can press Windows + C to open a Copilot column on the right side of the screen. It will use the same Microsoft account you use for the rest of the OS (it's unclear whether it will work without a Microsoft account, though, to date, the preview has required sign-up and sign-in). And like the other Bing Chat implementations, it has three different "conversation style" settings that either try to rein the chatbot in and keep its answers straightforward and factual or allow it to get "more creative" but more prone to confabulations .

In addition to chatting, Copilot will also support creating AI images using OpenAI's DALL-E 2 model, the same technology used for the Bing Image Creator . Some features announced last month, including third-party plugin support, aren't included in this initial preview, and later versions will also be able to adjust a wider range of Windows settings.

Enlarge / Windows Copilot is an AI-assisted feature coming to Windows 11 preview builds starting in June. (credit: Microsoft)

A couple of months ago, Microsoft added generative AI features to Windows 11 in the form of a taskbar-mounted version of the Bing chatbot . Starting this summer, the company will be going even further, adding a new ChatGPT-driven Copilot feature that can be used alongside your other Windows apps. The company announced the change at its Build developer conference alongside another new batch of Windows 11 updates due later this year. Windows Copilot will be available to Windows Insiders starting in June.

Like the Microsoft 365 Copilot , Windows Copilot is a separate window that opens up along the right side of your screen and assists with various tasks based on what you ask it to do. A Microsoft demo video shows Copilot changing Windows settings, rearranging windows with Snap Layouts , summarizing and rewriting documents that were dragged into it, and opening apps like Spotify, Adobe Express, and Teams. Copilot is launched with a dedicated button on the taskbar.

"Once open, the Windows Copilot side bar stays consistent across your apps, programs and windows, always available to act as your personal assistant. It makes every user a power user, helping you take action, customize your settings, and seamlessly connect across your favorite apps," wrote Microsoft Chief Product Officer Panos Panay.