--- title: "Microsoft Says It’s Adding an “AI” Key to Your Keyboard For Some Reason" description: "Microsoft is set to introduce its Copilot AI, powered by OpenAI's GPT-4, to keyboards on new Windows computers." date: "2024-01-13" modified: "2024-01-13" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/microsoft-ai-copilot-keyboard" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "copilot" - "microsoft" - "OpenAI" - "the digest" --- # Microsoft Says It’s Adding an “AI” Key to Your Keyboard For Some Reason ![Microsoft is set to introduce its Copilot AI, powered by OpenAI's GPT-4, to keyboards on new Windows computers.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Copilot Off Another year, another round of [goofy tech updates nobody]() asked for [announced at the annual CES]() conference — though Microsoft's may take the cake. As [*The Verge* reports](), the introduction of Microsoft's "Copilot" AI assistant key to keyboards on its forthcoming computers is its first major change to Windows keyboards in almost 30 years — so long as you don't count the emojis [added to some of its fancier keyboards]() in 2019 — and it represents the latest sea change for the company amid its multi-billion-dollar deal with OpenAI. According to that reporting, the Copilot key will sit next to the right-hand "Alt" key on Microsoft keyboards and will, akin to the company's Windows key, launch the Copilot assistant to help users do... well, [whatever you might do with AI](). For a bit less than a year, Microsoft and OpenAI have capitalized upon the latter's groundbreaking success with ChatGPT to bring forth dreams of another game-changing AI: Copilot, which seems quite a lot like a [supercharged version of its "Clippy" assistant]() of yore. Powered by OpenAI's GPT-4 large language model (LLM), [Copilot promises]() to automate work on Microsoft's Office suite — including generating entire Word docs and Excel spreadsheets, per a [splashy demo]() Microsoft released late last March about the AI. Even when it gets stuff wrong, as AI is wont to do, the tech giant [claimed in an announcement]() about Copilot last year, that it will get things "usefully wrong" in a manner that will supposedly help users get a "head start," whatever that means. https://youtu.be/S7xTBa93TX8 ## Browse Local In its own reporting on the new AI key, [*PC Mag* explained]() that as of now, Copilot runs on the cloud via Microsoft's servers, but [industry chatter indicates]() that the company is working around the clock to build out a version of Windows that could carry out the processing locally. While that may seem like an even smaller deal than the Copilot key itself, this potential shift from AI's mighty (and mighty expensive) computing power being taken on by companies versus it being [offloaded to consumers]() could, as the report suggests, help Microsoft keep its data bills down as it continues trying to become the American leader in all things AI with the help of OpenAI. This gambit may seem like a drop in the bucket of the AI boom, but if the teensy key is able to prove that it's packed with all the power and promise Microsoft claims it has, it could become a really big deal indeed. **More on Microsoft's AI obsession:** [*Microsoft's Stuffing Talking Generative AI Into Your Car*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()