Microsoft has released a new Copilot app for Android and iOS. Its functionality appears to be the same as the earlier Bing Chat application, which provides free access to GPT-4 and image generator DALL-E 3.
Update January 2: This article has received an update to reflect the fact that Copilot now has an iOS app. In December, Microsoft had already launched an Android version.
Since the new Copilot app is basically Bing Chat in a new guise, it remains a somewhat curious alternative to ChatGPT. The paid version of that chatbot provides access to the advanced models GPT-4 and DALL-E 3, while Copilot grants free, unlimited use to these LLMs – albeit in a slightly more guardrailed form.
Slower, safer
The Copilot app does provide distinctly different answers than ChatGPT. For example, it is still possible to generate “more creative” or “more precise” outputs than its default option, a degree of customizability that’s missing from OpenAI’s chatbot. However, the guardrails are a lot more firmly attached to the Microsoft assistant’s outputs than in ChatGPT. Additionally, multimodality is at the heart of Copilot: describing images and searching the Web are skills that the OpenAI variant lacks or can only access via the paid option.
Those who do wish to pay for OpenAI’s offerings will get an answer faster than would be expected with the Copilot app. We also noticed in a brief test that outputs can suddenly disappear while being generated. An AI-generated excuse soon follows that it’s currently not possible to come up with an answer.
Ultimately, the positioning of the Copilot app remains the same as what we saw with Bing Chat. That is, it is meant to inspire users, help with various tasks and as an image generation tool.
Also read: Microsoft tries to push Bing search engine in Edge, again
1 day ago
