A new key will be appearing on Windows keyboards soon.
If you go keyboard or computer shopping later this year you might see something new where the Menu key (or Application key) used to be on the keyboard next to the right Alt key (and the right Ctrl key that some keyboards also have). It’s called the Copilot key and it’s being introduced to Windows 11 keyboards by manufacturers at the request of Microsoft. It’s also the first change to the Windows keyboard in about 30 years; the last big change was the Windows key on the left.
This year Microsoft will be going all in on AI and the Copilot key will serve as a quick launcher to all the Copilot additions (Copilot is the current name of Microsoft’s AI software) that are being embedded in the operating system (and in the hardware) in a rather haphazard way now. According to Yusuf Mehdi, a corporate vice president at Microsoft, “This [key] will not only simplify people’s computing experience but also amplify it, making 2024 the year of the AI PC.”
For countries where Copilot has not yet been rolled out, the key will instead launch Windows Search. Now Copilot runs on Microsoft’s servers in the cloud, but the plan is to move as much of that as possible to the local system to speed up the processing. According to PCMag, this will begin to happen as new computers start to be manufactured with “the latest chips from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm and have integrated neural processing units (NPUs)”. Consequently, Copilot is still more of an idea than a set of concrete tools as Microsoft rushes to include bits in Windows to usher in its “AI year”.
Meanwhile, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the Norwegian Data Protection Authority are in the process of testing Microsoft 365 Copilot in a sandbox “to test whether Microsoft’s artificial intelligence assistant can be adopted by a large organisation in the public sector”. This is because the software will be able to access everything on your computer, including your emails and private folders, and therefore the researchers want to assess the privacy and data management danger areas, which is especially important for corporations that may be working with sensitive data.
As for the keyboard change, so far no one seems to be particularly excited about it, except for Microsoft, and not even all manufacturers are on board with the idea. Some, including Framework (frame.work), have said no and will continue to include the Menu key on their keyboards or, in the case of Framework, not have a Menu key at all. (To be fair, Framework is a bit of a renegade manufacturer – its Windows key says “Super”.)
As for Copilot itself, the scepticism continues there, since consumers have become tired of new “revolutionary” and “smart” features invading their system, only to find that they have disappeared completely a few years later, including Clippy and Cortana. Perhaps, this time, Copilot will the lucky number C for Microsoft.
You can find out more about Copilot at: microsoft.com/en-us/copilot.
Words by: Mandy J Watson
