Microsoft's new Copilot Appearance is giving Clippy vibes

As an elder millennial, I remember Clippy well. I don't remember Microsoft Office's animated paperclip fondly, but I'll never forget him. The rarely helpful assistant would pop up to make suggestions as you worked in Microsoft Word, often slowing down the experience significantly. (At least, that's how I remember Clippy.)

Now, Microsoft is testing another virtual assistant. While it's not quite Clippy 2.0, the new Copilot Appearance experiment from Copilot Labs is definitely giving major Clippy vibes.

Per Microsoft, "Copilot Appearance is an experiment that gives you a new, visual way to chat with Copilot, powered by real-time expressions, voice, and conversational memory."

Copilot, Microsoft's ChatGPT-powered AI assistant, is available with many Windows laptops and products. Now, Appearance lets you give Copilot a face — a marshmallow, emoji-like face.

Copilot users who participate in the test can talk to the rainbow-hued face and watch it respond in real-time. While AI chatbots have become hugely popular since the explosive debut of ChatGPT, the chatbot experience is largely text and voice-based. You can find AI avatars, such as xAI's new anime avatars, that react to your prompts, this technology has so far lagged behind traditional chatbots.

Copilot Appearance could be a big step toward bringing this technology to the masses. However, as anyone who has seen the movie Her knows all too well, anthropomorphizing AI chatbots comes with some risks. But by making its Copilot Appearance avatar undeniably adorable, Microsoft may help mainstream the anthropomorphization trend, for better or worse.

Crucially, the Copilot's experimental new face doesn't have a name, though that might not stop people from settling on a nickname. Clippy's official name was actually Clippit, but no one remembers Clippit.

How to activate Copilot Appearance

For now, Copilot Appearance is only available to certain users in the United States, the UK, and Canada. It's part of the Copilot Labs program.

According to Microsoft, it's easy to access Copilot Appearance:

1. Enter Voice mode

2. Go to the "Voice settings" menu

3. Toggle on Copilot Appearance.

If you don't find a toggle for Copilot Appearance, then you don't have access to this new feature.