Microsoft Copilot gets new features to help edit AI-generated images

08.02.2024

Microsoft’s AI-powered chatbots and assistants, part of the Copilot family, are receiving significant upgrades. Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s Chief Marketing Officer, detailed the enhancements in a blog post, highlighting the one-year milestone since the introduction of AI-powered experiences with Bing Chat.

Over the past year, Copilot has witnessed a surge in popularity, with over 5 billion chats and 5 billion images created. The latest updates include an improved AI model named Deucalion and a more streamlined user interface across web, Android, and iOS platforms. The cleaner design features concise answers and a carousel of suggested prompts to guide users in interacting with Copilot.

The Designer in Copilot, utilizing generative AI models like OpenAI’s DALL-E 3, now offers enhanced editing capabilities. English-speaking Copilot users in the U.S., U.K., Australia, India, and New Zealand can edit images directly in the chat flow, performing actions such as colorization, background blurring, and style changes. Copilot Pro subscribers, part of Microsoft’s premium plan at $20 per month, gain additional abilities like resizing and regenerating images between portrait and landscape orientations.

Upcoming to Copilot is Designer GPT, promising a more immersive and dedicated canvas within Copilot for users to visualize their ideas. However, it’s worth noting that Designer faced controversy earlier due to malicious users creating pornographic deepfakes, prompting Microsoft to implement safeguards and address loopholes.

Mehdi expressed Microsoft’s commitment to democratizing AI breakthroughs with Copilot, aligning with the company’s mission to empower individuals and organizations globally. Yet, there’s a mention of performance issues with Copilot Pro, with users reporting long generation times and potential bugs. While speculation suggests server capacity problems, there’s no official comment from Microsoft on the root cause.