Category: microsoft

Microsoft’s Mico heightens the risks of parasocial LLM relationships

“It looks like you’re trying to find a friend. Would you like help?”

Microsoft is rolling out a new face for its AI, and its name is Mico. The company announced the new, animated blob-like avatar for Copilot’s voice mode yesterday as part of a “human-centered” rebranding of Microsoft’s Copilot AI efforts.

Mico is part of a Microsoft program dedicated to the idea that “technology should work in service of people,” Microsoft wrote. The company insists this effort is “not [about] chasing engagement or optimizing for screen time. We’re building AI that gets you back to your life. That deepens human connection.”

Mico has drawn instant and obvious comparisons to Clippy, the animated paperclip that popped up to offer help with Microsoft Office starting in the ’90s. Microsoft has leaned into this comparison with an Easter egg that can transform Mico into an animated Clippy.

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Microsoft makes Copilot “human-centered” with a ‘90s-style animated assistant

“Mico” literally tries to put a face on Microsoft’s chatbot-turned-assistant.

Microsoft said earlier this month that it wanted to add better voice controls to Copilot, Windows 11’s built-in chatbot-slash-virtual assistant. As described, this new version of Copilot sounds an awful lot like another stab at Cortana, the voice assistant that Microsoft tried (and failed) to get people to use in Windows 10 in the mid-to-late 2010s.

Turns out that the company isn’t done trying to reformulate and revive ideas it has already tried before. As part of a push toward what it calls “human-centered AI,” Microsoft is now putting a face on Copilot. Literally, a face: “Mico” is an “expressive, customizable, and warm” blob with a face that dynamically “listens, reacts, and even changes colors to reflect your interactions” as you interact with Copilot. (Another important adjective for Mico: “optional.”)

Mico (rhymes with “pico”) recalls old digital assistants like Clippy, Microsoft Bob, and Rover, ideas that Microsoft tried in the ’90s and early 2000s before mostly abandoning them.

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Microsoft is bringing Copilot AI controls to all Windows 11 PCs

For the past few years Microsoft has been pushing the idea of Copilot+ PCs as special systems that have NPU’s with enough AI processing performance to allow you to use certain AI features without a cloud connection. But now Microsoft has announce…

For the past few years Microsoft has been pushing the idea of Copilot+ PCs as special systems that have NPU’s with enough AI processing performance to allow you to use certain AI features without a cloud connection. But now Microsoft has announced plans to make every Windows 11 computer an AI PC that use the company’s […]

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Windows 11 Media Creation Tool gets a buggy update on the eve of Windows 10’s EOL

Microsoft is ending mainstream support for Windows 10 on October 14th, 2025 and encouraging users to upgrade if they want to keep getting bug fixes and security updates. Folks in some regions with eligible PCs can safely put off migrating to Windows 11…

Microsoft is ending mainstream support for Windows 10 on October 14th, 2025 and encouraging users to upgrade if they want to keep getting bug fixes and security updates. Folks in some regions with eligible PCs can safely put off migrating to Windows 11 for a year by getting a free year of extended security updates. […]

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