Microsoft is adding a new key to Windows PC and laptop keyboards that will summon an AI assistant, the tech giant announced Thursday, marking the first major change to the design in decades and underscoring the company’s commitment to artificial intelligence as businesses scramble to embrace and adapt to the rapidly evolving technology.
Microsoft will be adding a button dedicated to its AI assistant Copilot on Windows 11 PCs, executive vice president and consumer chief marketing officer Yusuf Mehdi said in a blog post.
Pressing the button will summon Microsoft’s Copilot, an AI-powered chatbot that can help users research, draft text, create images and even turn their ideas into songs.
The new button will sit to the right of the space bar and replace either the right control (CTRL) key or a menu key, depending on keyboard layout.
If Copilot is unavailable or disabled on a device, the button will launch Windows Search, Microsoft said.
Mehdi said the update “marks the first significant change to the Windows PC keyboard in nearly three decades,” adding that it will “empower people” to participate in the AI revolution.
Mehdi said the new button will be seen on many of the new Windows 11 PCs being unveiled at the upcoming CES tech show in Las Vegas later this month. The feature will be available for consumers from late February through spring, Mehdi added, including on Microsoft’s upcoming Surface devices.
Microsoft believes 2024 is going to be “the year of the AI PC,” Mehdi said. Microsoft “will be ushering in a significant shift toward a more personal and intelligent computing future where AI will be seamlessly woven into Windows from the system, to the silicon, to the hardware,” he added. “The year ahead promises to be nothing short of extraordinary!”
Companies around the world have rapidly moved to capitalize on recent advances in artificial intelligence, particularly following the popularity of OpenAI’s Chat-GPT. Microsoft, which has invested heavily in and works closely with OpenAI, has been at the forefront of this change and swiftly integrated the technology throughout many of its products. This includes many of its flagship brands including Bing Search and Windows Office. Its move to codify its AI assistant through hardware changes could prompt wider change in the industry. Microsoft is an incredibly influential player in consumer technology—its Windows operating system is by far the most widely used computer operating system in the world by a large margin—and through licensing agreements it holds significant sway over other PC manufactures. With the entire industry embracing AI, it’s possible that customers could need to update hardware more often to keep pace with the rapidly advancing software developments.
Microsoft’s new Copilot key is the first big change to Windows keyboards in 30 years (Verge)
