Copilot's gurning blob is leaving Voice for a new career in education
Microsoft has yanked Mico from the Copilot spotlight less than a year after unveiling the anthropomorphic assistant intended to make its AI a little less soulless.As part of Microsoft's announcement that its consumer and work Copilot applications will merge, the company confirmed that the weird blob thing would shuffle out of Copilot Voice and into Learn Live, a voice-based study mode that guides users through subjects and assignments."Mico helped us learn about warmth, expressiveness, and how people want to talk with AI," Microsoft wrote. "Those learnings are shaping Copilot going forward."
"Learn is where the character has the most room to grow, with tutoring sessions that give Mico more to react to and teach through."
As the update rolls out, Mico will no longer be the face of Copilot Voice. Users can still speak to Copilot and receive responses, but will be spared the blob's gurning.Mico is only the latest in Microsoft's long line of anthropomorphic assistants. There was Clippy (or Clippit), which arrived with Office 97 but had been pushed into Microsoft's desk drawer of doom by the time Office 2007 appeared. Then came Cortana, named after the character from the Halo video game franchise and pitched as a far more intelligent assistant. Microsoft introduced Cortana on Windows Phone in 2014 and brought it to PCs with Windows 10 the following year, before losing interest.
