30 years after cluttering up PC keyboards with the Home windows key, the important thing answerable for booting you to desktop on the worst doable second in your Dota 2 match, Microsoft is poised to as soon as once more rework our keyboards.
The corporate at the moment unveiled the Copilot key, a brand new button that may assist usher in, as Microsoft government vp Yusuf Mehdi put it, “a major shift towards a extra private and clever computing future the place AI might be seamlessly woven into Home windows from the system, to the silicon, to the {hardware}.”
Primarily based on promotional pictures, the Copilot key appears like it can exchange the menu key that at present sits to the correct of the spacebar. Mehdi stated the button will begin to seem on new Home windows 11 PCs from Microsoft’s “ecosystem companions” within the days main as much as and at CES, which will get underway January 5—that is tomorrow—with availability set to start later in January.
“The introduction of the Copilot key marks the primary important change to the Home windows PC keyboard in practically three many years,” Mehdi wrote. “We consider it can empower individuals to take part within the AI transformation extra simply. The Copilot key joins the Home windows key as a core a part of the PC keyboard and when pressed, the brand new key will invoke the Copilot in Home windows expertise to make it seamless to interact Copilot in your each day.
“Almost 30 years in the past, we launched the Home windows key to the PC keyboard that enabled individuals all around the world to work together with Home windows. We see this as one other transformative second in our journey with Home windows the place Copilot would be the entry level into the world of AI on the PC.”
We took a better have a look at Copilot final yr and located it, very similar to the remainder of the AI revolution, not fairly able to ship on the hype. However there’s additionally a way of inevitability to it: “AI all up in your OS appears to be right here to remain, and this newest replace might very effectively be the start of a brand new daybreak on your on a regular basis computing expertise, whether or not you prefer it or not,” {hardware} editor Andy Edser wrote. “Change is within the air, and it might be the beginning of an entire new approach of interacting along with your OS in years to return.”
AI will little question proceed to evolve, though whether or not it turns into “higher” in any significant sense or just accelerates the enshittification of varied features of the web stays to be seen. The identical will be stated for Microsoft’s dedication to make Copilot occur: Will anybody really use this new button, or will Copilot merely develop into a brand new Cortana, the ill-fated “digital voice assistant” all of us labored so arduous to do away with? I will not say I believe it will likely be the latter, however I do should admit that I am not desperate to embrace an “on a regular basis AI companion for work and life” simply but.
In case there’s any doubt, sure, I’m nonetheless irritated by the entire Home windows key factor. 101 keys was lots, and it left a pleasant house the place the facet of my hand may relaxation with out popping up the beginning menu repeatedly. I hated it a lot I did not make the transfer to a 104-key unit till late in 2023, and once I did I made certain I obtained one which had an choice to disable the Home windows key totally. (An ROG Strix Flare, in the event you’re curious.)
Particular timing on the rollout of the brand new Copilot key will range “by market and machine,” and naturally you will have to be logged in with a Microsoft account to make use of it. In the event you’re not logged in, or occur to stay in an space the place Copilot is not accessible, the brand new key will launch Home windows Search as an alternative.