Enlarge / The Microsoft Copilot logo. (credit: Microsoft)
On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that Bing Chat—its famously once-unhinged AI chatbot—has been officially renamed “Microsoft Copilot.” The company also announced it will support OpenAI’s recently released GPTs, which are custom roles for its ChatGPT AI assistant.
The rebranding move consolidates Bing Chat into Microsoft’s somewhat confusing “Copilot” AI assistant naming scheme, which has a lineage that began with GitHub Copilot in 2021. In March this year, Microsoft announced Dynamics 365 Copilot, Copilot in Windows, Microsoft Security Copilot, and Microsoft 365 Copilot. Now Bing Chat is just “Microsoft Copilot”—its sixth copilot so far. Pretty soon, Microsoft will need a Branding Copilot to keep them all straight.
Regarding the naming scheme, Microsoft customer Amit Malik took to X and wrote, “I love Microsoft, but this whole copilot thing is becoming more confusing than it should be. Microsoft Copilot, Windows Copilot, M365 Copilot, then all the m365 apps, D365 copilot and so on. AI was supposed to simplify, not otherwise.” Note that Malik wrote that in September—nearly two months before the recent announcement.