ChatGPT is not just this unusual artificial intelligence or weird chatbot that can explain Quantum Theory to a child in the style of Snoop Dogg. And Copilot for Windows is more than just an AI playing the role of a boring female robot called Cortana or a digital bully that won’t accept that “Avatar: The Way of Water” has already premiered in cinemas worldwide. In spite of these catchy headlines, we’re talking about impressive AI-powered chatbots that have the potential to change the way we work and interact with the web. And to make things more interesting, Microsoft is investing heavily and integrating this technology into Bing, Windows, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Office, Azure, and many other products. If you want to know more about ChatGPT, how Copilot works in Microsoft Edge, and how these two are different, read this article:

What is Windows Copilot in Microsoft Edge?

Before anything else, let’s cover the basics: the Copilot is a chatbot. It’s a tool that can help us do more on our computers and mobile devices using the power of AI (Artificial Intelligence). While you can access and work with it directly from your Windows 11 desktop, it’s also built into Microsoft Edge, the default browser of the operating system. Available in a separate sidebar, Copilot can answer complex questions that you ask using natural language instead of simple search terms. In turn, the Copilot provides comprehensive answers, it can give you summarized information, and it can even compose text content in your place.

The Copilot in Microsoft Edge

To really understand what Copilot is all about, though, you also need to know a bit about the way it came to be in Windows and Edge. Talking about its history:

First, there was ChatGPT…

ChatGPT was and still is one of the most advanced chatbots in the world. Based on generative artificial intelligence, it was created to provide text answers and results based on most of the world's digitally-accessible text-based information. You can interact with it via a text entry field in a web browser or a mobile app, and ChatGPT provides answers.

Using ChatGPT in a browser

ChatGPT uses non-supervised pre-training to gain knowledge. Its language model is trained on data where no specific output is associated with each input it might receive from its users. The goal is for ChatGPT to understand the syntax and semantics of natural language to generate coherent text in conversations with its human users. There’s a more thorough explanation with useful examples published on ZDNET, if you want more details: How does ChatGPT work?.

Developed by OpenAI, a research laboratory consisting of both a nonprofit organization and a for-profit subsidiary corporation, ChatGPT was released to the world in November 2022.

…then came Bing Chat, which turned into Windows Copilot

Soon after the release of ChatGPT, Microsoft announced Bing Chat on February 7th, 2023. It was a new feature of Bing. Powered by a next-generation version of OpenAI’s large language model, Bing Chat could theoretically be even more useful than ChatGPT. That’s because, while using the same underlying technologies as ChatGPT, Bing Chat was connected to the internet through Microsoft’s search engine.

Initially, Bing Chat was not exactly an integral part of Windows 11, as you could only use it online in the Microsoft Edge web browser. You only had some shortcuts in the Search from Windows 11’s taskbar and a button in the top-right corner of Edge that opened Bing Chat in a sidebar. Still, when accessing it, Bing Chat could do everything it promised and more, including:

• Search for information on any topic
• Generate creative content such as poems, stories, code, etc.
• Have fun conversations and play games
• Learn new skills and languages
• Get personalized recommendations and suggestions

The original Bing Chat (later known as Copilot)

Later on, Microsoft improved Bing Chat and turned it into Copilot in Windows. This took place when the Windows 11 Moment 4 update was released in the fall of 2023. Starting then, we have the Copilot available straight from Windows 11, as well as in Microsoft Edge. If you want, you can learn how to access and use Copilot in Windows by reading this article we published a while ago: How to use Copilot in Windows 11.

Copilot in Windows 11

Although the Copilot in Windows is basically the same thing as the Copilot in Microsoft Edge, the interface of the latter is slightly different and more complex. That’s because it can do more than just chat with you: you can also use it to compose text or gain insights on the webpage or document loaded in the current tab of your Microsoft Edge. Here’s how it all works:

How to use Windows Copilot in Microsoft Edge

Before we go ahead, you should know that I’m using the latest official build for Microsoft Edge, version 120.0.2210.61. The features I’ll show you may not be available on your computer if you’re using an older Edge version.

How to access Copilot in Microsoft Edge

In Microsoft Edge, you can access the Copilot by clicking or tapping its button from the top-right corner of the browser window.

The Copilot button in Microsoft Edge

Once you do that, the Copilot sidebar shows up on the right side of the window.

The Windows Copilot sidebar in Microsoft Edge

What can you do with Copilot in Edge? Well, quite a lot:

Chat with Copilot about anything

When you open Copilot in Microsoft Edge, you’ll find that there are three tabs available in it: Chat, Compose, and Insights. The Chat tab is the default one, and it works just like a virtual assistant. You can talk to it just like you’d do a human being, using natural language.

Towards the bottom of the Copilot sidebar, there’s a text field that says Ask me anything. This is where you can input the question or the task you have for it. For example, you can ask Copilot about quantum physics or why cats with three colors are almost always females. 🙂

Enter text to chat with the Copilot

If you prefer using voice instead of typing, you can also click or tap the small microphone button in the top-right corner of the chat area. This turns on the microphone on your Windows 11 computer, and Copilot starts listening to your voice so you can simply speak to chat with it.

Use the mic icon to talk to Windows Copilot

Unless you’ve already changed the style of the conversations you have with Copilot, it defaults to a More Balanced approach. This sets Copilot to deliver informative and generally reliable responses based on accurate information. However, you can also choose a conversation style that’s More Creative to make Copilot more playful and inventive or More Precise to get more concise and direct replies.

Choose a conversation style for Copilot

To delve deeper, one of the most useful ways of using the Copilot in Microsoft Edge is to…

Use Copilot to find information about the web page you’re seeing on Microsoft Edge

When you load a web page in Microsoft Edge, you can ask the Copilot to summarize it. In my experience, it usually does a very good job at that, although there are times when it’s not completely accurate.

Generate a page summary with Copilot in Edge

TIP: What’s neat is that you can further interact with Copilot using new questions related to the previous responses you got from it. This applies to any conversation you have with it, not just when summarizing a page.

Use Copilot to generate text for emails, blog posts, etc.

Another feature that is both scary and useful is Copilot’s ability to compose text. Select the Compose tab in the Copilot sidebar in Edge and type what you want it to write about. Next, choose the Tone you want it to use, the Format, and the Length, and then click or tap Generate draft. For example, I asked it to compose a text about “The probability of humans living on the Moon in the next 20 years,” and, as you can see below, the result was a credible paragraph with information on the subject.

Make the Copilot generate text for you in Edge

The text content generated by Copilot is, more often than not, quite decent and usable. And to make things scarier, Microsoft Edge includes an Add to site button, making it clear that the company wants this to become an integral part of the internet’s content. Copilot and ChatGPT are likely going to get better and better over time, to the point where they’re good enough to become a regular tool for daily writing.

Add the AI-generated text to the site

And last but not least, you can also…

Use Copilot in Microsoft Edge to get details about a website

The Copilot panel in Microsoft Edge also includes a tab called Insights. When you click or tap on it, you see more information about the website loaded in the current tab. For instance, you can rate the site to send your opinions about it to Microsoft, you can see Analytics data about it, and you can check other similar websites that people also view.

Copilot's Insights give you information about the loaded website

I found the idea of analytics data pretty good and potentially useful, but some of the numbers were often incorrect as they don’t seem to include information from other search engines such as Google. Still, if you’re into Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and you want to monitor competing sites, as well as your own, the data from the Analytics section can be useful. Moreover, the Analytics data is much more accurate for larger sites like Wikipedia, Microsoft.com or large publications like Wired or The New York Times.

Analytics data shown by Copilot in Edge

Having said all that, you now have an idea of what the Copilot can do in Microsoft Edge. But, before ending this article, I’d also like to analyze a bit the…

Key differences between Windows Copilot and ChatGPT

The core of Windows Copilot is a version of ChatGPT that behaves in similar ways, but there are some key differences that you quickly notice between the two:

• Both ChatGPT and Windows Copilot (formerly known as Bing Chat) have been trained using a similar data set. However, Copilot is also continuously connected to the internet through Microsoft’s Bing infrastructure, having access to even more information. This is a major difference between the two.
• Windows Copilot is free as long as you have a Microsoft account. ChatGPT can be used for free only if you’re OK with getting access to the older GPT-3.5 model and training data. The latest and most capable model, GPT-4 is available only if you subscribe to a paid plan that costs 20 USD per month. Windows Copilot will soon be able to generate responses using OpenAI’s latest model, GPT-4.
• Bing Chat provides many references and links to its data sources, while ChatGPT does not. In this regard, Bing Chat is a virtual assistant that enhances your experience when searching the web for information.
• While ChatGPT’s goal is to provide an advanced product that companies buy and integrate into the way they do business, Microsoft’s Copilot’s goal seems to become a free virtual assistant for everyone using the company’s products.
• Copilot is actively developed and enhanced by Microsoft based on the language model received from OpenAI. In contrast, ChatGPT is actively developed and enhanced by OpenAI alone. So, while these products started out as being similar, as time goes by, they are likely to become more and more different.
• Both ChatGPT and Copilot have been trained to work in multiple languages, including less-used languages like my native Romanian. However, their performance varies depending on the language used by users, and in this regard, Windows Copilot should offer a better performance than ChatGPT.

How do you feel about Copilot and ChatGPT?

It’s pretty clear that the Copilot and ChatGPT will likely strengthen Microsoft’s market position in some key areas where it is not in the lead. But will they be enough to shake the market and overthrow Google’s dominance? Well, that remains to be seen. One thing is clear, though: we live in a revolutionary period that will change how we work and use the internet, and I’m very curious about how things will unfold. What about you? What do you think? Did you try out the Copilot from Microsoft Edge or your Windows? Did you play with ChatGPT? How do you feel about them? Comment using the options below, and let’s get the conversation started.