Microsoft is releasing a preview version of one of the experimental artificial intelligence features it announced in October. Copilot Vision, which scans your web browsing and communicates with you about it, is available for testing at Copilot Labs.
Copilot Vision has severe limitations, at least at first. It only works in Microsoft Edge and only on a “select set of websites.” (The company says it will carefully expand this list over time.) Even the trial version has limitations: It’s only available to a limited number of Copilot Pro subscribers ($20 monthly) in the US. As with accessible websites, Microsoft will expand access to it to more users over time.
Microsoft says that Copilot Visions sessions are “voluntary and ephemeral,” so you have to activate them manually, and the data from each session is erased immediately after completion. The company says that the feature only interprets text and images from visited websites and does not process content outside of them, nor does it learn from web publishers’ data.
This cautious approach seems to be a course correction after the unsuccessful launch of Recall. This “photographic memory” feature that takes screenshots of everything you do on your computer drew the ire of security and privacy experts who asked Microsoft to leave the feature’s data unencrypted. After three delays and security tweaks, it’s finally been made available to Windows Insiders.
If you are a Copilot Pro subscriber, you can request access to Copilot Vision through Copilot Labs today. You can watch a demo video from Microsoft below.
