Microsoft showcases 6 new features in Copilot that might impress you

Microsoft has launched Surface computers with an improved Copilot—and demonstrated how the AI is smarter and, shall we say, more proactive

(Image: Microsoft)

Microsoft announced Surface computers—the Surface Laptop 7 and Surface Pro 11—with an enhanced version of Copilot (Microsoft’s artificial intelligence) on Monday (20). In fact, AI is the main focus of the new devices. And the tech giant also announced that GPT-4 will soon power Copilot.

The launch comes just ahead of Microsoft Build 2024, the company’s event taking place this Tuesday (21).

Copilot with GPT-4 will be “available soon,” Microsoft announced at the Surface event. But even without OpenAI’s “turbo,” Copilot brings new features worth mentioning.

Edit photos, polish drafts, ‘go back in time’: the new Copilot (on Surface)

Check out the main new features of Copilot announced by Microsoft at the Surface event below:

Edit photos without opening apps

(Image: Microsoft)

Demonstrating Copilot’s capabilities on a Surface computer, Microsoft stated that, with the AI chatbot, you can edit photos without having to open apps.

In the demo, Microsoft showed that users can click on a photo and, with Copilot integration, ask to remove the background with a single click, for example.

Finalize drawing sketches

(Image: Microsoft)

The Surface event briefly showed how Copilot can help users with their sketches. In the demo above, a person scribbles a house in the middle of nowhere. And Copilot apparently manages to transform the sketch into a finished-looking piece.

Additionally, there’s a slider that lets you increase the sketch’s “creativity” and change its style.

Summarize notification content

(Image: Microsoft)

You know those notifications you receive on your computer for messages and emails, for example? Well, Microsoft showed that Copilot can provide summaries of the notification content.

Access anything viewed on your computer with ‘Recall’

(Image: Microsoft)

Using the NPU built into the new Surface computers, the new AI-powered Recall feature allows users to find anything that has ever appeared on the screen using natural language.

For example: a user was looking for a dress, found it, then got distracted and forgot to save it to a wish list or favorites. With Recall, they could type something like “blue dress” and revisit the webpage. It’s as if the user could search to go back in time.

Real-time translation

(Image: Microsoft)

Microsoft also demonstrated that Copilot has the ability to perform real-time translation on videos, allowing users to translate a range of languages (in the case of the presentation, into English)—with subtitles included.

‘Screen sharing’ with Copilot

(Image: Microsoft)

Microsoft demonstrated that users will be able to “share their screen” with Copilot. In one example, a man had Copilot watch as he played Minecraft—and the AI offered tips.