Since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in fall 2022, Microsoft has become one of the company’s largest investors. Microsoft used these investments to power its own search engine, Bing, with generative AI, giving it a new generative search experience. The company also developed a competitive AI chatbot – Microsoft Copilot – accessible as a standalone site or through Bing.
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Users can use Microsoft Copilot to ask questions, upload images, and request AI-generated images, just like ChatGPT. However, Copilot is slightly different from its more popular competitor ChatGPT. Here’s how to get the most out of it.
How to use Microsoft Copilot
Visit Copilot.Microsoft.com (or download the app to your phone). Enter your prompts in the text box at the bottom of the screen and send them to Copilot. You can also add photos to your request or use the microphone feature for voice prompts.
You can ask Copilot an unlimited number of questions per day without logging in, but there is a response limit. For longer conversations and more complex features, you’ll need to log in with a Microsoft or Github account. A Microsoft account can be an email address and password from outlook.com or hotmail.com, or the login credentials you use for Microsoft services like Office, OneDrive, or Xbox.
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You can create a Microsoft account with any email address (including Gmail and Yahoo!).
Microsoft Copilot is programmed to provide a more human response to a query than a search engine. If you have a personal account, logging in gives you access to three conversational options that Copilot can use to answer your queries: creative, balanced, and precise.
Each of these formats is self-explanatory: choosing “more creative” will give you answers that are original and imaginative, and may also generate images; “more balanced” is similar in tone to ChatGPT, an informative and friendly chat with a human-like response; and “more precise” will give you concise and direct answers.
You can set your preferred language and country by adjusting the settings in the hamburger menu in the top right corner. When you log in, you can also upload files with your query.
Sign in to Copilot with a personal account.
Screenshot by Radhika Rajkumar/ZDNET
If you have an account at your work or school and log in, you can switch between two Copilot modes in the top left corner: Work and Web.
Work is the enterprise arm of Copilot and is integrated with Microsoft 365. It acts as a productivity assistant that can summarize documents, help you prepare for meetings, collect ideas, organize tasks, and more. It can leverage your company’s internal data and has enhanced security to ensure privacy when uploading files.
The Microsoft Copilot bot is slightly different from ChatGPT, the most popular AI chatbot recommended by ZDNET. While the conversations have you typing prompts in a similar way, the format of responses, conversation style, and UI are all different.
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Here’s a breakdown to help you get to know the new Microsoft Copilot window:
- Text area: At the bottom of the screen there is a text area where you can enter your prompts and questions for Copilot.
- Add an image: Microsoft allows users to upload a photo that Copilot can process using AI, similar to Google Lens and ChatGPT. Clicking the photo icon allows you to add an image.
- Microphone: If you prefer to use your device’s microphone instead of your keyboard to give your inputs to Copilot, you can click the microphone in the text area to speak to the AI chatbot.
- New topic: When you click New Topic (a chat bubble icon next to the text area with a plus sign), Copilot deletes your existing conversation and prompts you to continue with a new one.
- Sources: Copilot is an AI-powered conversational search engine. While it doesn’t give you answers in list form like search engines would, it gathers most of its answers from around the web thanks to Bing. When you respond to a prompt, Copilot lists all the sources and links below the message bubble.
- Suggested follow-up questions: After you receive a response from Microsoft Copilot, it will generate suggestions for different follow-up questions that you can use. For example, if you ask Copilot, “What color is the sky?” it might suggest follow-up questions like, “Is the sky blue on other planets?” or “How does pollution affect the color of the sky?”
- Prompt counter: When Copilot responds to a request within a conversation, it displays a number that allows you to count the number of replies received. There is a limit of four replies per topic for non-logged-in users, and no limit for logged-in users.
- Like, Dislike, Copy, Export, Share and Read Aloud buttons: If you scan the screen, you will notice these buttons below each response from Microsoft Copilot.
FAQ
What can Microsoft Copilot do?
Like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot can generate conversational-style text, write essays, compose letters, summarize content, write code, and answer complex questions. It also has Internet access, so it can provide up-to-date answers to current events—something the free version of ChatGPT lacked until recently.
Also: 7 Advanced ChatGPT Prompt Writing Tips You Need to Know
Copilot can also use AI to generate images (for logged in Microsoft users) in the chat window. All you have to do is ask it to create an image and describe what features you want the photo to have and it will generate an image instantly. It can also process images you upload in chat to give you information about them, such as identifying plant species.
How do I access Microsoft Copilot?
The Microsoft Copilot AI chatbot is accessible through the Copilot.Microsoft.com website or Bing. Users need a Microsoft account or Entra ID to log in. Alternatively, you can use it without logging in and receive limited responses per topic.
Can you use the new Microsoft Copilot on mobile?
The Microsoft Copilot chatbot is still accessible through the Bing mobile app. You can start a conversation on the web and scan a QR code to continue it in the mobile app.
Also: Want quick access to Bing Chat on your phone? Add this handy widget
This app provides a direct connection to the Copilot chatbot and has the advantage of not having to go through a website when using it and allowing you to add widgets to your phone’s home screen.
Does Microsoft Copilot use ChatGPT?
Copilot does not use ChatGPT because ChatGPT itself is not an LLM. Instead, Copilot uses a model from OpenAI’s GPT-4 architecture to perform its functions. ChatGPT also uses a model from this model family; however, it uses the most advanced one – GPT-4o.
Does Microsoft Copilot give wrong answers?
Just like ChatGPT and other major language models, the new Copilot has a tendency to spread misinformation. Most of the answers Copilot provides come from online sources, and we know we can’t believe everything we read online.
Also: The best AI chatbots of 2024: ChatGPT, Copilot and worthy alternatives
Likewise, the copilot chatbot may generate nonsensical answers that have nothing to do with the original question. These are also known as hallucinations. It is important to take precautions when talking to AI chatbots, such as never sharing personal and private information and never relying on them for medical or life-threatening information.
How is Microsoft Copilot different from a search engine?
Compared to a search engine, the biggest difference between Copilot and other AI chatbots is the conversational tone when presenting search results, thanks to the Large Language Model (LLM) working in the background. Intelligently formatting search results into an answer to a specific question can make finding something on the internet easier.
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Beyond the search features that the standard search engine Bing already offers, Copilot is a full-fledged AI chatbot that can do many similar things to tools like ChatGPT. For example, both Copilot and ChatGPT can generate text such as essays or poems, write code, or ask complex questions and have a conversation with follow-up questions.
Does Microsoft have an AI image editor?
Microsoft also introduced Bing Image Creator as part of its generative AI tools. Currently, Microsoft uses DALL-E, an AI image generator from OpenAI. It is accessible within Copilot – users can give Copilot a prompt to create images within an existing chat, rather than going to a separate website.
Also: How to use Bing Image Creator (and why it’s better than DALL-E 2)
Is Microsoft Copilot free?
The Copilot chatbot is completely free. You can use the Copilot chatbot to ask questions, get help with a problem, or seek inspiration.
