Microsoft’s AI division head wants to create a lasting relationship between chatbots and their users

Fifty years after the founding of Microsoft, the CEO of its artificial intelligence division has a big task: develop a new product line that is as integral to daily life as the software giant's past innovations. “We’re really trying to land this idea that everybody is going to have their own personalized AI companion," said Mustafa Suleyman in an interview with The Associated Press. "It will, over time, have its own name, its own style. It will adapt to you. It may also have its own visual appearance and expressions.” Suleyman laid out that vision on Microsoft's 50th anniversary in April. The company's flagship product of this AI era, Copilot, already combines a chatbot with Microsoft's suite of workaday tools, from Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations to the Windows operating system that defines how most computers work. But Suleyman is striving for something that sounds a little more like science fiction—a technology that can form a “lasting, meaningful relationship” with its users. “One that knows your name, gets to know you, has a memory of everything that you’ve shared with it and talked about and really comes to kind of live life alongside you,” he said. “It’s far more than just a piece of software or a tool. It is unlike anything we’ve really ever created." Some of those updates—such as new “visual memory” capabilities that keep track of a user's digital activity, if they want that—rolled out on mobile apps last month. Other features are still in development, such as an animated avatar—a talking peacock in Suleyman's demo—that would embody a person's AI companion. “It’s a super competitive market, but this is absolutely foundational to us,” Suleyman said. “Copilot in the workplace, Copilot at home is the future of the company. On the consumer side, we are going to be committed to this for many decades to come. We really think it’s the major platform shift that we have to win.” Even as competition ramps up, so does wariness from Wall Street and big business customers about whether these AI products are worth their huge costs in computing power and energy. This article was provided by The Associated Press.