Microsoft Copilot, previously known as Bing Chat, is built into Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, as well as Windows 10, Windows 11 and the Microsoft Edge sidebar. (Newer PCs even have a dedicated keyboard key for launching Copilot.) There’s also stand-alone Copilot apps for Android and iOS and an in-app Telegram room.

Powered by fine-tuned versions of OpenAI’s models (OpenAI and Microsoft have a close working relationship), Copilot can perform a range of tasks described in natural language, like writing poems and essays, as well as translating text into other languages and summarizing sources from around the web (albeit imperfectly).

Copilot, like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, can browse the web (in Copilot’s case, via Bing) for up-to-date information. It sometimes gets things wrong, but for timely queries, access to search results can give Copilot an advantage over offline bots such as Anthropic’s Claude.