{"id":141860,"date":"2025-10-24T03:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T03:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/141860\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T03:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T03:01:08","slug":"the-new-clippy-microsoft-unveils-mico-an-ai-character-embodying-its-copilot-assistant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/141860\/","title":{"rendered":"The new Clippy? Microsoft unveils Mico, an AI character embodying its Copilot assistant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Clippy, the animated paper clip that annoyed Microsoft Office users nearly three decades ago, might have just been ahead of its time.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Microsoft introduced a new artificial intelligence character called Mico (pronounced MEE-koh) on Thursday, a floating cartoon face shaped like a blob or flame that would embody the software giant\u2019s Copilot virtual assistant and marked the latest attempt by tech companies to imbue their AI chatbots with more of a personality.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Copilot\u2019s new emoji-like exterior comes as AI developers face a crossroads in how they present their increasingly capable chatbots to consumers without causing harm or backlash.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Some have opted for faceless symbols, others like Elon Musk\u2019s xAI are selling flirtatious, humanlike avatars and Microsoft is looking for a middle ground that is friendly without being obsequious.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWhen you talk about something sad, you can see Mico\u2019s face change. You can see it dance around and move as it gets excited with you,\u201d said Jacob Andreou, corporate vice-president of product and growth for Microsoft AI. \u201cIt\u2019s in this effort of really landing this AI companion that you can really feel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Jacob Andreou, corporate vice-president of product and growth for Microsoft AI. Photo: AP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/76af21a0-2fb0-43fe-a66c-de4bb12d0cb7_b08bd0fe.jpg\" title=\"Jacob Andreou, corporate vice-president of product and growth for Microsoft AI. Photo: AP\"\/>Jacob Andreou, corporate vice-president of product and growth for Microsoft AI. Photo: AP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In the US only so far, Copilot users on laptops and phone apps can speak to Mico, which changes colours, spins around and wears glasses when in \u201cstudy\u201d mode.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clippy, the animated paper clip that annoyed Microsoft Office users nearly three decades ago, might have just been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[8001,8002,297,83661,23118,18,1647,84000,823,19,876,17,17055,3337,83660,305,307,308,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-141860","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-ai-chatbots","9":"tag-character-ai","10":"tag-chatgpt","11":"tag-clippy","12":"tag-copilot","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-elon-musk","15":"tag-federal-trade-commission","16":"tag-google","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-instagram","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-massachusetts-institute-of-technology","21":"tag-meta-platforms","22":"tag-mico","23":"tag-microsoft","24":"tag-openai","25":"tag-sam-altman","26":"tag-technology"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115426917734907503","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}