Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that it aimed to enhance voice commands for Copilot, the integrated chatbot and virtual assistant in Windows 11. Described in their announcement, this updated Copilot strongly resembles another attempt at reviving Cortana, the voice assistant that Microsoft endeavored (and failed) to popularize in Windows 10 during the mid-to-late 2010s.
It appears that the company is not finished rethinking and reviving previously attempted concepts. As part of its initiative towards what it terms “human-centered AI,” Microsoft is now introducing a persona for Copilot. Specifically, a persona: “Mico” is an “expressive, customizable, and warm” figure with a face that actively “listens, reacts, and even alters colors to represent your interactions” while engaging with Copilot. (Another key descriptor for Mico: “optional.”)
Mico (which rhymes with “pico”) brings to mind earlier digital assistants such as Clippy, Microsoft Bob, and Rover, concepts that Microsoft attempted in the ’90s and early 2000s before largely letting them go.
Microsoft evidently believes that supporting these concepts with language and/or reasoning models will enable Copilot to succeed where both Cortana and Clippy fell short. One reason these assistants were deemed irritating instead of beneficial is that they could only react to a limited range of inputs or circumstances, and they often failed to assist even in those situations due to their restricted responsiveness to context clues. While I lack concrete evidence, I would wager that the experience of ignoring Clippy’s “It seems you’re composing a letter!” messages is nearly universal among PC users of a certain generation.
