Microsoft Announces Copilot: the AI-Powered Future of Office Documents (theverge.com) 56
Microsoft is announcing a new AI-powered Copilot for its Microsoft 365 apps and services today, designed to assist people with generating documents, emails, presentations, and much more. From a report: The Copilot, powered by GPT-4 from OpenAI, will sit alongside Microsoft 365 apps much like an assistant (remember Clippy?), appearing in the sidebar as a chatbot that allows Office users to summon it to generate text in documents, create PowerPoint presentations based on Word documents, or even help use features like PivotTables in Excel. Microsoft's Copilot leaked earlier today. "It works alongside you, embedded in the apps millions of people use everyday: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more," said Microsoft 365 head Jared Spataro. "Copilot is a whole new way of working." Microsoft 365 users will be able to summon Copilot to provide information on an upcoming Microsoft Teams meeting, preparing people with updates on related projects, organizational changes like recent hires, and even updates on co-workers who might have returned from vacation.
Iin other words (Score:5, Informative)
More harassment. As if the seemigly unending stream of pop-ups and notices and "Look here!" isn't bad enough. Now we'll have to deal with a shitfaced successor to Clippy.
It's almost as if the people in Microsoft have no clue what they're doing and keep throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks.
Re:Iin other words (Score:4, Funny)
Relax, if you just want a good text editor, I'm sure there's an Emacs command to download vi.
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Re:Iin other words (Score:4, Funny)
Relax, if you just want a good text editor, I'm sure there's an Emacs command to download vi.
Using a great editor to install a "good" text editor (your words) -- classic. :-)
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What i've always wanted from a linux CLI text editor is notepad that thinks it's an IDE, but without any sort of menus, instead having 500 multi-key shortcuts I need to memorize in order to do basic things... like type, or save, or quit.
This is not the 1970s. Text-mode GUIs are a thing that exist.
TL;DR-- nano or fuck off.
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We all know emacs is a great operating system. Seems like a reasonable movev to install a useable editor on your OS.
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emacs has an editor?\
who'd a thunk it?
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Re:Iin other words (Score:5, Funny)
"I see that you're writing a letter to your mother. Shall I post your social security and credit card numbers on the dark web for you?"
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This time it's "AI"
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It would be "kinda" cool..if new Clippy was dressed out as the Terminator (Arnold era)...with glowing red eye....and when you minimize him he departs saying...
" I'll be back..."
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It's almost as if the people in Microsoft have no clue what they're doing and keep throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks.
It's been their operating model since 1975.
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And people wonder why our brains are getting (Score:3)
smaller. Soon we'll just wallow in nutrient solutions emitting grunts for AI robots to interpret and perform.
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And when the AIs get "smart" enough, they'll be the ones programming the meatbags to make their jobs easier. Sounds like dystopian scifi to me.
Menial Work (Score:5, Funny)
Honestly, this really goes to show just how repetitive and wasteful office work is. Like yeah, productivity increases are nice and all, but this is just setting us up for an office environment where people send and read AI-generated documents for hours on end.
I can already see managers âoecreatingâ long-chains of AI-generated e-mails that employees then have summarized by an AI, before sending back a bunch of AI-generated reports to also be summarized by an AI for said manager.
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If you have additional questions, please donâ(TM)t hesitate to reach out to me.
Yours faithfully,
havana9
Re: Menial Work (Score:1)
I donâ(TM)t doubt that at all. Itâ(TM)s just the nature of bureaucracy to repeat, reuse, and recycle content. ChatGPT just makes it easier to notice all these repetitive patterns.
The sad part though is that despite the techâ(TM)s potential, office culture probably wonâ(TM)t change much. Managers will notice how people can get work done faster so theyâ(TM)ll just dump more tasks onto their employees. Bonus points if they lay off a bunch of people and just overwork the remainder becau
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Who cares?
As long as I get a healthy paycheck...I'm happy.
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AI HR: What you do at Initech is you take the specifications from the customers and bring them down to the AI?
Tom: Yes, yes that's right.
AI HR: Well then I just have to ask why can't the customers take them directly to the AI?
Tom: Well, I'll tell you why... because... AI is not good at dealing with customers...
AI HR: So you physically type the specs from the customer?
Tom: Well... No. Their AI does that... or they're emailed.
AI HR: So then you must physically enter it into the AI?
Tom: Well... No. ah sometime
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I have only one question (Score:5, Insightful)
Where's the option to disable it?
Re: I have only one question (Score:1)
Offline apps are all the rage nowadays. They have shown that online is akin to digital slums.
Oh look! Another vulnerability that has been exploited for years! So much for convenience features that compromise your data. Software is full of those.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.c... [bleepingcomputer.com]
SOLD!!! To the highest bidder!
Re:I have only one question (Score:4, Insightful)
Right on the installer: instead of MS Office install LibreOffice.
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
"I noticed you typed 'she'. Are you sure of their gender? Are you using the correct pronoun?"
More importantly what pronoun does Clippy prefer?
Re: Wasteland Clippy (Score:2)
Clearly, they are "clipped". That's pronounced "clippet" in Shakespearian English.
Self-propelled BS (Score:3)
So now corporate BS will be both produced and consumed with minimal (or none) human intervention. That sounds like a win-win to me.
Changing the world... (Score:2)
I know some folks think it is hype - and there is a lot. However, really, this stuff is going to change the world. One newspaper in the UK has already admitted to publishing over 100 articles written by ChatGPT and lightly edited by humans. Now people will use it to write their standard correspondence, business reports, etc.. Sure, they may have to do some editing, but the bulk of the text can be generated.
On the other side, something few people seem to have thought about: ChatGPT can also receive text an
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I though everyone using Grammarly was bad enough. I can sniff out a Grammarly user in a paragraph or two.
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they added 'script lab' so you do JavaScript nonsense instead now. Never mind the API model is completely stupid, its JavaScript the new hotness!
My gwd, it is a spreadsheet, the most basic unit of anything on a spread sheet is an f'ing cell, so naturally there is no cell object... Oh and its all async and event driven because business users are so familiar with that programing paradigm and understand concepts like promises...
The one thing Microsoft used to sorta do right is they knew who their products wer
I Feel Sorry For (Score:2)
The people who are going to have to make sense of machine-generated bullshit.
As opposed to phb-generated bullshit...
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Well quite. One might think that is the AI can do the presentation then the presentation isn't worth doing. On the other hand my boss's^N boss is kind of like if chat GPT wasn't nearly so grammatically coherent.
So overall might be an improvement over some of the "leadership team".
Also the AI is less of a craven backstabbing dickhead.
Religion Sector ... (Score:1)
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You could replace it all with bots today. And the beauty of it is, the more nuanced the question, the easier it can be fielded.
"Francis! Should I worry my pretty little head about reconciling suppression by gender and rampant pedophilia with my need to farm off my morality and free will to an unquestioned arbiter with dodgy middlemen?"
Francis: "No"
"Thank you, Francis!"
Francis: "Have a wonderful day."
Clippy 2.0 (Score:3)
Rebranded Clippy.
If it is well integrated into Teams can I send it to meetings I'm supposed to attend? Should be easy as long as it is good at snark.
Will It Be Successful? (Score:2)
Anyone who knows Microsoft and their Office products probably remembers:
CLIPPY that annoying MS Office assistant-widget that everyone grew to hate.
And who can forget Microsoft BOB ??
At least Microsoft had the good sense to move away from OS/2 and find it's own path with Microsoft SQL Server (from Sybase) that became Microsoft SQL Server on NT and so on.
Is it a general AI system? (Score:1)
So how is Microsoft document and publish the required test for bias, trustworthiness, overview etc.
I am not sure a lengthy legalese boilerplate end-user-agreement is gonna work this time.
Clippy's advice coming soon... (Score:4, Funny)
"Looks like you're making a resume. Would you like me to pad it with a better college and a Fortune 500 company in there? It worked for George Santos...speaking of which, you should change your name, too."
"You seem to be staring at a blank page. Shall I just go summarize the Wikipedia entry for you?"
"This paragraph on civil rights in the 50s could use a little humor. How about a nice funny joke about black people?"
"Is this spreadsheet to help you with your taxes? I think we need to split up and see other people. Maybe you can deduct that?"
Clippy is baked into MS’s DNA (Score:1)
Clippy was the result of Melinda Gate’s work on “social interfaces”.
I’m sure Bill hung on her every word “She’s so smart, interesting, and funny!” for a long time before his positronic neural interface registered that he was in love with her.
It’s showed very limited success but Microsoft never stops trying even if they’ve toned it down since the days of Bob. I’m sure there are many many true believers who are very excited about ChatGPT finally del
You will all train it for the purpose. (Score:3)
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Oh my gwd (Score:2)
users to summon it to generate text in documents, create PowerPoint presentations based on Word documents
So much for slowing inflation. Sounds like my easy and rapidly consumed strategic memo from upper management will now be a half hour ordeal I get read one sentence at a time in 32 point type face. With presentation in hand they'll want to do walk us thru it over teams no doubt too.. Goodbye to another 30 min of useful productivity a week!
This is a revolution (Score:2)
The implementation of the powers of ChaptGPT and assoicated technologies into the Microsoft office suite will be a complete game changer. Nobody (in his right mind) will manually organize emails when an AI can perfectly sort emails, alert you of important infos and deadlines and suggest answers or actions.
This has no more similarity to Clippy than a Tesla has to a toy car.
Sensitivity aware? IRM capable? (Score:2)
Look, the concept would be pretty useful if it works, but there are a couple of stones in the shoe.
Firstly, if your organization uses IRM, can the “AI” access the encrypted emails that you have access to so that it actually has all relevant material?
Secondly, will it be smart enough to apply the same IRM (or classification or both) of the source content to the created content?
If not the first, then in some shops the tool will be pretty useless. If not the second, my security team is in for a hea
I'm actually looking forward to this (Score:3)
Too many things in Office are too hard to do.
Pivot tables are Exhibit A. Yeah, I've made them using the current technology, but I have to re-teach myself exactly how to set everything up each time I use them. And then there are those obscure Excel functions like VLOOKUP and XLOOKUP that are very useful, but don't work in an intuitive way. And how do I do grouping and subtotals again???
Word has its share of obscure or clunky features. Drawing flow charts or doing mail merges are two items that come to mind.
Outlook isn't immune. What I'd really love is to simplify the creation of inbox rules, to automatically file emails with certain criteria into segregated folders.
If Copilot can do these kinds of things, I'm in!
Great (Score:3)
Clippy (Score:2)
Reminds me of the Clippy suicide note meme. Now I guess it'll help write the whole thing, with convincing justifications so that if anyone were on the fence it'll push them over.
Its not snooping (Score:4, Interesting)
He used to be named Bob. (Score:2)
It looks like good old Bob has come back with a new name. I'm sure he will be just as helpful now as he was then.
required redact (Score:2)
Now not only will they correct my correctly spelled words, correct my correct grammar, but also check my writing for political correctness. "Toxic content automatically redacted. This operation cannot be reversed."
Speaking as a college instructor (Score:1)