It has been almost three decades since Microsoft Office’s assistant, Clippy, was first seen in a retrospect. Following the decommissioning of the Office XP system in 2001, Microsoft attempted to continue its assistant spirit through the Cortana of Windows Phone. Ten years ago, the technology was premature, but Microsoft is now ready to re-engage with the new player Mico in the Copilot voice mode.
“Big Eyes has paved the way for us,” Jacob Andreu, Vice-President of Microsoft ‘Ai Products and Growth Enterprise, was interviewed by The Verge. After several months of testing, this virtual role, which responds to the face of the conversation in real time, is now defaulted on to the Copilot voice mode, which allows users to choose to turn off the jumping lightball. Jacob Andreu explained: “You will see it react in real time with dialogue — when it comes to sad topics, his face changes almost immediately. All the technology is hidden backstage, and you’re just talking to this lovely lightball and building links.”
Mico’s launch was limited to the United States market only, with active access to user information and work content that had been learned, based on the new memory function of Copilot. Microsoft also equips it with a real-time learning model, which enables it to become a Socrates mentor who “directs the concept rather than directs the answer” and specializes in preparing candidates and language learners through interactive whiteboards and visual clues. This echoes the goal proposed this year by the Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft AI, Mustafa Sulaiman: “Copilot will have a permanent identity, a fixed sense of presence, and even mature”. Mico is at the heart of Microsoft’s “Dialogueable Computer” marketing strategy — the current Windows 11 television advertising is the main focus of this concept, while a decade ago similar promotion ended with Cortana’s suspension at Win11.
Despite the fact that Mico has far too much eye clips and Cortana, Microsoft still faces the same challenge: how to make users feel less weird about talking to equipment. In continuation of the ancient tradition, Mico also buried egg design. “If you move Mico quickly, you might trigger a special reaction, “Andreu revealed, “In a sense, we still live in the shadow of a big eye clip.”