Copilot
Also called Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot
Microsoft's name for its AI assistants, and a general word for an AI that works alongside you while you stay in charge.
A copilot flies the plane with you, not instead of you. Microsoft borrowed the word for its AI assistants, and it stuck as general shorthand for AI that helps while a person makes the decisions, as opposed to an agent that works on its own.
Microsoft's own Copilots are everywhere: in Windows, the Edge browser, Office apps, Teams and GitHub. In a Pew survey, 17% of US adults said they use Copilot, behind only ChatGPT and Gemini. Many meet it without choosing to, because it's built into software they already use.
That's the main thing to know: the Copilot on your home laptop, the one in your work email and the one that writes code are different products with different access and different rules.
For example
In Outlook at work, Copilot drafts a reply from the email thread and your calendar; you edit it and press send.
Put it to use
Where you'll meet copilot in ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, how to use it there, and the mix-up most people make.
Daily Bytes Plus is in the Android app.