Microsoft Is Forcing Its AI Assistant on People—and Making Them Pay
Microsoft is trying a new approach to build excitement for its artificial-intelligence assistant Copilot: Give it to customers whether they want it or not.
The tech company recently added Copilot to its consumer subscription service for software including Word, Excel and PowerPoint in Australia and several Southeast Asian countries. Along with the AI feature, it raised prices for everyone who uses the service, called Microsoft 365, in those countries.
What about people who don’t want to pay for an AI assistant to spruce up their documents and summarize emails? They are out of luck.
Alistair Fleming uses Word to write scripts for his YouTube channel about 1990s Japanese wrestling. The Australian noticed that every time he finished a line, Copilot’s rainbow logo would pop up on screen and ask if it could help with his writing.
Some users said on social media that Copilot pop-ups reminded them of Clippy, Microsoft’s widely derided Office helper from the late 1990s, that would frequently offer unsolicited help.
