Η Microsoft has integrated its AI assistant Copilot into Microsoft 365 subscriptions in Australia and Southeast Asia, while also increasing prices for all users.
The company's move forces customers to pay for artificial intelligence features intelligences regardless of interest, prompting complaints of intrusive pop-ups and price hikes, as reported by the WSJ.
From the post:
Some users posted on social media that Copilot's pop-ups reminded them of Clippy, Microsoft's ancient Office assistant from the late 1990s that often offered unsolicited "help."
Η change shows just how far Microsoft can go to capitalize on its huge investments in artificial intelligence.
Copilot, which is built with technology from OpenAI, is a key part of CEO Satya Nadella's plan to continue expanding Microsoft's software business to consumer and enterprise customers.
What about those who don't want to pay for an AI assistant to enrich their documents and write their emails?
Let them be careful...
Microsoft has been trying since early 2023 to use artificial intelligence to gain ground in the consumer applications market.
It first incorporated the technology into its search engine Bing as a chat tool, but failed to gain much ground against Google.
Αργότερα κυκλοφόρησε το Copilot, ένα chatbot και ένα πρόγραμμα δημιουργίας περιεχομένου που ενσωμάτωσε με το λογισμικό της 365 για να βοηθά στη σύνταξη email, στη σύνοψη συσκέψεων και στη δημιουργία διαφανειών PowerPoint.
The premium consumer version of Copilot was released in January for $20 per month in the US. Note that the price is on top of the monthly fee (about $7) for a single 365 subscription.
