Copilot is an AI-driven service from Microsoft. It used to be known as Bing Chat. You can access Copilot via a URL or as a side-bar in the Edge browser. Copilot provides rich, AI-driven text and image capabilities. You can interact with Copilot via text chat, by voice and by uploading images or other file inputs. Copilot responds to these inputs (usually called “Prompts”) with human-like text or (if asked) with generated images. With the Edge side-bar you can also put Copilot into a “Composition” mode that you can use to quickly and conveniently generate paragraphs, emails, bullet points, social-media posts and so on.
All of these powerful capabilities are based on Generative Pretrained Transformer models (GPTs). These models are trained on huge quantities of text and images so they can make predictions that simulate human language, speech and creativity. Currently, Copilot uses a GPT-4 model for language and the DALL-E 3 model to generate images.
Microsoft makes Copilot available to holders of M365 licenses, so you should be logged in to your canterbury.ac.nz account in your web browser. Being logged in gives you access to the image-generation capabilities of Copilot and it also means that Copilot retains more context in its interactions with you (i.e. it “remembers” more about what you have exchanged with it in this conversation). However, when you finish interacting with Copilot it discards all your input, including any images or other files you’ve shared with it. This is very important for ensuring privacy and the security of your data. You can find more details about how Copilot protects your information at this page.
