Microsoft hopes Mico succeeds where Clippy failed as tech companies warily imbue AI with personality

By MATT O BRIEN AP System Writer Clippy the animated paper clip that annoyed Microsoft Office users nearly three decades ago might have just been ahead of its time Microsoft introduced a new artificial intelligence character called Mico pronounced MEE koh on Thursday a blob-shaped cartoon face that will embody the application giant s Copilot virtual assistant and marks the latest attempt by tech companies to imbue their AI chatbots with more of a personality Copilot s cute new emoji-like exterior comes as AI developers face a crossroads in how they present their increasingly capable chatbots to consumers without causing harm or backlash Selected have opted for faceless symbols others are selling flirtatious human-like avatars and Microsoft is looking for a middle ground that s friendly without being obsequious When you talk about something sad you can see Mico s face change You can see it dance around and move as it gets excited with you explained Jacob Andreou corporate vice president of product and progress for Microsoft AI in an interview with The Associated Press It s in this effort of really landing this AI companion that you can really feel Microsoft AI band members from left Trevor Back Ella Steckler Product Manager Jacob Andreou CVP Product and Increase and Wendy Wang Mertensmeyer Principal UX Researcher comment on Microsoft AI s character avatar named Mico during Copilot Sessions event Wednesday Oct in Los Angeles AP Photo Damian Dovarganes Jacob Andreou CVP Product and Development Microsoft AI introduces Mico short for Microsoft Integrated Companion the new Microsoft Copilot a memory-based AI assistant during Microsoft s Fall Copilot Sessions event on Wednesday Oct in Los Angeles AP Photo Damian Dovarganes Microsoft AI crew members from left Trevor Back Ella Steckler Product Manager comment on Microsoft AI s character avatar named Mico during Copilot Sessions event Wednesday Oct in Los Angeles AP Photo Damian Dovarganes Mustafa Suleyman CEO of Microsoft AI introduces Mico short for Microsoft Integrated Companion the new Microsoft Copilot a memory-based AI assistant during Microsoft s Fall Copilot Sessions event on Wednesday Oct in Los Angeles AP Photo Damian Dovarganes Show Caption of Microsoft AI crew members from left Trevor Back Ella Steckler Product Manager Jacob Andreou CVP Product and Advance and Wendy Wang Mertensmeyer Principal UX Researcher comment on Microsoft AI s character avatar named Mico during Copilot Sessions event Wednesday Oct in Los Angeles AP Photo Damian Dovarganes Expand In the U S only so far Copilot users on laptops and phone apps can speak to Mico which changes colors and wears glasses when in inquiry mode It s also easy to shut off which is a big difference from Microsoft s Clippit better known as Clippy and infamous for its persistence in offering advice on word processing tools when it first appeared on desktop screens in It was not well-attuned to user demands at the time declared Bryan Reimer a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of System Microsoft pushed it we resisted it and they got rid of it I think we re much more ready for things like that nowadays Reimer co-author of a new book called How to Make AI Useful disclosed AI developers are balancing how much personality to give AI assistants based on who their expected users are Tech-savvy adopters of advanced AI coding tools may want it to act much more like a machine because at the back end they know it s a machine Reimer stated But individuals who are not as trustful in a machine are going to be best supported not replaced by device that feels a little more like a human Microsoft a provider of work productivity tools that is far less reliant on digital advertising revenue than its Big Tech competitors also has less incentive to make its AI companion overly engaging in a way that s been tied to social isolation harmful misinformation and in certain cases suicides Andreou revealed Microsoft has watched as chosen AI developers veered away from giving AI any sort of embodiment while others are moving in the opposite direction in enabling AI girlfriends Those two paths don t really resonate with us that much he declared Related Articles What Americans think about the environmental impact of AI according to a new poll A new car vs soundness insurance Average family job-based coverage hits K Average long-term US mortgage rate drops to lowest level in more than a year Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao US home sales accelerated in September to their fastest pace since February as mortgage rates eased Andreou noted the companion s design is meant to be genuinely useful and not so validating that it would tell us exactly what we want to hear confirm biases we already have or even suck you in from a time-spent perspective and just kind of try to kind of monopolize and deepen the session and increase the time you re spending with these systems Being sycophantic short-term maybe has a user respond more favorably Andreou commented But long term it s indeed not moving that person closer to their goals Part of Microsoft s announcements on Thursday includes the ability to invite Copilot into a group chat an idea that resembles how AI has been integrated into social media platforms like Snapchat where Andreou used to work or Meta s WhatsApp and Instagram But Andreou mentioned those interactions have often involved bringing in AI as a joke to troll your friends which is different from the intensely collaborative AI-assisted workplace Microsoft has in mind Microsoft s audience includes kids as part of its longtime competition with Google and other tech companies to supply its hardware to classrooms Microsoft also declared Thursday it s added a feature to turn Copilot into a voice-enabled Socratic tutor that guides students through concepts they re studying at school A growing number of kids use AI chatbots for everything from homework help to personal advice emotional help and everyday decision-making The Federal Transaction Commission launched an inquiry last month into several social media and AI companies Microsoft wasn t one of them about the promising harms to children and teenagers who use their AI chatbots as companions That s after a few chatbots have been shown to give kids dangerous advice about topics such as drugs alcohol and eating disorders The mother of a teenage boy in Florida who killed himself after growing what she described as an emotionally and sexually abusive relationship with a chatbot filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Character AI And the parents of a -year-old sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman in August alleging that ChatGPT coached the California boy in planning and taking his own life Altman in recent days promised a new version of ChatGPT coming this fall that restores selected of the personality of earlier versions which he announced the company temporarily halted because we were being careful with mental vitality issues that he suggested have now been fixed If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way or use a ton of emoji or act like a friend ChatGPT should do it Altman stated on X In the same post he also announced OpenAI will later enable ChatGPT to engage in erotica for verified adults which got more attention