Don’t Call It Clippy! Microsoft Gave Its Copilot AI a Face.

There’s a real lack of face in AI. Most people celebrate that as a silver lining. Microsoft seems to think it a detriment, and so it introduced a new feature to its Copilot AI that gives it a baby-faced cloud avatar that responds to your inputs and voice.

Calling it an early prototype, Microsoft says you can “chat, brainstorm, seek advice, or just mess around with Copilot, in a more engaging and expressive way.”

Talk to it the same way you’d enter voice input to Copilot normally, and the little cloud-shaped smiley face will react in ways “powered by real-time expressions, voice, and conversational memory,” according to Microsoft.

the ghost of clippy

Remember Clippy? Everybody shits on Clippy. Back in 1996, Microsoft introduced a helpful, irritating desktop companion to Microsoft Office 97: a sentient, cartoon paperclip named Clippit.

Most people were fairly amateurish at using computers back then. Perhaps they could log onto AOL, with its handholding approach toward ushering people toward their inboxes, news coverage, and weird chat rooms.

But using Microsoft’s Office software to create Word documents and Excel spreadsheets was foreign to a lot of people. So Microsoft introduced Clippit, and everybody started calling him Clippy.

And he’d nudge his way intrusively into your tasks like a nosy know-it-all. Clippy lasted until Microsoft Office 2007, its role gradually diminished until he was sent by Microsoft to live on a farm upstate.

Microsoft, seemingly still gun shy from its Clippy debacle, insists that their new, baby-faced cloud child won’t ramrod its way into your workflow uninvited like Clippy would. You can watch a demonstration video of Copilot Appearance to see it in action.

Want to test it out? So far it’s only available to a limited number of people in the US, UK, and Canada. Head to Copilot, and enter Voice Mode by clicking the microphone icon. Then click the gear icon to open Voice Settings. Now toggle Copilot Appearance on.

If you don’t see Copilot Appearance, then it means Microsoft hasn’t made you eligible for testing it just yet. It’s still the early days, so keep your chin up, and perhaps Microsoft will open it up to your account soon.