Microsoft is altering its PC keyboards for the primary time in three many years – with a brand new key devoted to its synthetic intelligence (AI) assistant.
Virtually anybody who makes use of a pc shall be accustomed to the ever-present Home windows-style keyboard—until you had been raised completely on Macs—together with the Home windows button, which made its debut almost 30 years in the past.
It appears to be like like the brand new addition will sit on the alternative facet of the keyboard, probably changing the ctrl button on the precise, and when pressed, will launch Microsoft’s new AI Copilot.
Writing in a weblog put up, Microsoft’s director of client advertising Yusuf Mehdi mentioned: “This new yr, we’ll usher in a major shift in direction of a extra private and clever way forward for computing, the place AI shall be woven seamlessly into Home windows from system, to silicon, to hardware.
“This won’t solely simplify folks’s computing expertise, but additionally amplify it, making 2024 the yr of the AI PC.”
The Copilot key shall be launched to Home windows 11 PCs beginning this yr, permitting customers to rapidly entry the AI assistant, which can be utilized to assist with productiveness duties akin to organizing recordsdata and home windows on a consumer’s display and performing searches extra helpful on the web.
Microsoft is positioning itself as a number one participant within the more and more aggressive discipline of AI. It’s an investor in OpenAI, the agency behind chatbot sensation ChatGPT, which powers Copilot. Merchandise within the Microsoft steady that supply AI capabilities embody Bing search and Microsoft 365.
Mr Mehdi added that the Copilot key will “empower folks to extra simply take part within the AI transformation”.
“Over the previous yr, we have been on the forefront of this modification, innovating and enhancing our product experiences with Copilot, your on a regular basis AI associate, on the middle,” he mentioned.
“The Copilot key joins the Home windows key because the centerpiece of the PC keyboard, and when pressed, the brand new key will invoke the Copilot expertise in Home windows to make it seamless to interact Copilot each day.”
For computer systems that do not have Copilot capabilities or customers who aren’t signed in to a Microsoft account, the important thing will launch Home windows Search.
Mr Mehdi confirmed that the primary units to host the brand new key will begin showing earlier than and through CES, the tech commerce present that takes place subsequent week in Las Vegas, and can go on sale from the top of February.
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