Clippy rises from the dead in major Copilot update

"Mico (short for Microsoft) is the new face of Copilot. Redmond promises it will appear when you use voice commands to invoke the assistant. It's rolling out to users on Thursday and you can get it by clicking the microphone icon on the web version of Copilot ( copilot.microsoft.com). However, at the time of publication, it was not appearing in the Copilot for Windows app for this writer."

"When I invoked Copilot's audio mode by clicking the microphone icon in Copilot for Windows - the app that's built into Windows 11 - the OS presented a similar voice agent without any avatar. And that's a shame, because without Mico you miss out on interacting with something that looks like the unholy offspring of a Herculoid and a toasted marshmallow. After launching Mico, I saw an avatar which moves around and makes facial expressions while it's talking to you."

"My Mico had a female British accent, which appears to be the default. However, when I clicked the settings icon, the AI offered me the choice of eight different voices with names such as Birch, Meadow, Rain, and Canyon. Some sounded male, some spoke with British accents, and others were clearly American. I wanted a deep Scottish accent, but I guess they don't have that. I was also able to change Mico's color scheme by clicking on a palette icon in the top right corner of the screen. I asked Mico to explain photosynthesis to me and "she" did a good job of summarizing the science behind the process - but without presenting text so I could read what she was saying rather than just having to follow it with my ears."

Microsoft revived Clippy as Mico, a voice-activated Copilot avatar introduced in the Copilot Fall Release. Mico appears when users invoke voice commands and is rolling out on the web Copilot via the microphone icon, though it was not yet present in the Copilot for Windows app at the time of testing. The avatar animates with facial expressions and movement during speech. Users can choose among eight named voices and change color schemes. In spoken responses Mico summarized photosynthesis effectively but did not provide synchronized on-screen text of its narration.

Read at Theregister