Microsoft is making a Copilot AI assistant for gamers, but it's not clear what it does

Microsoft just announced the pending availability of Copilot for Gaming, an AI-powered assistant that’s being advertised as a novel way to help players get better at their favorite titles. The company says it will accompany people through games, offering tips, guides and useful information along the way.

Microsoft boasts it can also help folks download and launch games, solving the eternal problem of, uh, pressing a button. Copilot for Gaming will be available as part of the Xbox mobile app, so it’s being positioned as a second screen type of thing.

We aren’t entirely sure how it works. There are demo videos but they are just proof of concept designs. One shows Copilot recommending a hero for Overwatch 2 that complements the rest of the team. Another video found the AI assistant answering questions about Minecraft building techniques. The demo also showed Copilot enabling cheats in Minecraft, with the bot telling a player where crafting materials could be found. Hopefully, this tech will be ready the next time Elon Musk wants to show off his Path of Exile 2 "skills." 

Microsoft says that Copilot will be able to see your game screen, via app integration, to offer real-time guidance. Again, we don’t know how that will work or what kind of information it will be able to cook up. None of the aforementioned tasks will be available during the initial launch, so we don’t even know what, if anything, players will be able to do with this thing. That’s modern AI for ya!

In any event, Copilot for Gaming will be available to Xbox Insider members in April. Microsoft says it will iterate according to user feedback. Once the company has ironed out some kinks, it should become available to more players.

Microsoft also shared today that the Xbox Play Anywhere program now allows access to more than 1,000 games. This is a cross-platform service that lets people enjoy a game on both Xbox consoles and PC. The platform even keeps track of saves, progress and achievements.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/microsoft-is-making-a-copilot-ai-assistant-for-gamers-but-its-not-clear-what-it-does-185603482.html?src=rss https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/microsoft-is-making-a-copilot-ai-assistant-for-gamers-but-its-not-clear-what-it-does-185603482.html?src=rss