Microsoft's Office 365 apps have been the cornerstone for many working professionals' day-to-day workflows for years. As a result, when the company developed its AI assistant, Copilot, it was only natural to infuse it across the 365 apps, and now, it is getting even more helpful. Also: Microsoft's Copilot AI is coming to your Office apps - and it won't come cheap On Wednesday, Microsoft launched Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat which builds on the traditional free Microsoft 365 Copilot chat experience, introducing pay-as-you-go agents that can automate repetitive tasks. With Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, commercial customers can still chat with Copilot regarding content across their Microsoft 365 applications, such as asking for quick summaries from an email thread or asking for help preparing for a meeting on their Outlook calendar by leveraging GPT-4o. However, the bonus is now being able to create, discover, and pin agents. Agents are AI assistants that can carry out repetitive tasks for you with minimal or no instruction.

Microsoft has begun expanding the reach of its Copilot feature set, bringing its AI capabilities to Office apps for anyone currently subscribed to Microsoft 365 Personal or Family. For customers in the US and Europe, those features are only available with an extremely pricey Copilot Pro subscription. For Personal and Family subscribers, the upgrade costs an extra 20 monthly, which is more than double the cost of the basic Microsoft 365 subscription. But that's all about to change. Also: Microsoft Copilot vs. Copilot Pro: Is the subscription fee worth it?

Following the success of OpenAI's GPT series of large language models, an increasing number of institutions are proposing "foundation" models for artificial intelligence that, like GPT, are "pre-trained" to have very broad capabilities in a domain of knowledge. We saw this last week with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang proposing a "world foundation model" for autonomous vehicles and robots. On Tuesday, at the annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, AI computer startup Cerebras Systems and medical research powerhouse Mayo Clinic presented findings of what they're calling a foundation model for genomics that can tease out the genetic root of inherited conditions. The goal is to "build the ChatGPT of healthcare," according to Cerebras and Mayo Clinic. The first breakthrough of the year-long collaboration is the potential capability to predict drug response from patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Until now, ChatGPT has been a useful assistant, hoping to help at the command of a quick prompt. But what if ChatGPT could carry out tasks for you without even being asked? On Tuesday, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Tasks, a feature that lets users prompt the chatbot once to carry out recurring tasks in the future. For example, in the demo, a user asks ChatGPT to send them a work out reminder every morning along with a motivational speech. Today we're rolling out a beta version of tasks--a new way to ask ChatGPT to do things for you at a future time.

The high volume of job applications makes it challenging for recruiters to find the talent they need and for people to get hired. LinkedIn is adding a new feature that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to make the recruitment process more seamless, helping both parties connect efficiently. On Wednesday, LinkedIn announced Job Match, a feature that shows job seekers how their profiles, including their skills and experience, compare to an open position. This approach is meant to give job seekers a better idea of the roles worth applying to and that they could hear back from. To power this experience, LinkedIn said it uses advanced in-house language models that can generate insights within seconds.

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot can be powerful. Even though generative AI is a fairly new technology, a powerful limitation on its use dates back to the 1950s or earlier: GIGO. GIGO means "garbage in, garbage out." If you ask AIs the wrong questions or don't ask them correctly, you're pretty much guaranteed to get nonhelpful answers. In this article, I'm going to show you what I consider the five biggest mistakes, but I'm only one source.

What does it mean for a writer, such as a novelist, to have a unique "voice"? And does artificial intelligence (AI) help or hurt that voice? Microsoft researchers set out to answer that question with a small study using 19 fiction writers, 30 readers, and short passages written with the help of OpenAI's GPT-4. The research takes its title from a comment by one of the writers -- "it was 80% me, 20% AI." What prompted the study are "concerns that vast transformations of the writer economy are likely underway" as a result of generative AI, writes lead author Angel Hsing-Chi Hwang of the University of Southern California, who collaborated with five scholars from Microsoft Research Montréal.

CES displayed some groundbreaking robot vacuum technology, combining the best robotics and artificial intelligence to deliver some of the most innovative robots we've seen in years. However, one stands out for how expertly it elevated its capabilities, skipping the flashy robotic limbs in favor of more thorough cleaning results. The Narwal Flow is an upgraded robot vacuum and mop from the company. It will be available in the US in the summer of 2025 and will have a new color, design, and even a redesigned logo. Also: I saw Roborock's'mechanical arm' robot vacuum pick up objects - and it likely won't be my last Some of the best technology within the Narwal Flow is its'Deep Carpet Boost.'

For the past few years, Nothing has been synonymous with mid-range Android phones that offer an aesthetic no other phone manufacturer can match. The Nothing phones are unique devices, beloved by fans. The company recently announced that the Nothing Phone 3 will be its first true flagship phone, and that should have fans champing at the bit to get their hands on the next iteration. Also: These are still one of my favorite earbuds I've ever tested The Nothing Phone 3 was originally set to be released in 2024, but Nothing CEO Carl Pei pushed the release to Q1 2025. On X, @evleaks shared a leaked internal email from Pei confirming the Nothing Phone 3 release.

I am a user of tools. I work a great many hours each week. Anytime I find a tool that helps me meet my deadlines, do something I otherwise couldn't do, or get a little more sleep or personal time, I add it to my kit bag, even if that means spending some money. For example, I've invested in an entire army of camera robots because they help me turn out better and more interesting videos. When Apple Intelligence was announced, and its big features were tied to the iPhone 16 series, I decided it was time to upgrade my four-generation old iPhone 12 Pro Max. I bought my iPhone 16 Pro Max specifically for the productivity benefits I expected to get from Apple Intelligence.