All of the news from Microsoft’s 50th Anniversary Copilot event

Microsoft is bringing its Copilot Vision feature to Windows and mobile, moving it beyond the web. Copilot Vision was a big part of Microsoft’s Copilot redesign last year, but so far, it has been limited to Edge webpages to help guide you through what you’re seeing.

Copilot Vision will now be able to analyze real-time video from a mobile camera, allowing the AI assistant to offer tips for keeping plants healthy or decorating advice for your home. Microsoft is launching Copilot Vision inside the Copilot app for iOS and Android today, and a similar feature is also coming to Windows soon.

In the second major disruption of today’s 50th anniversary event at Microsoft’s headquarters, another employee stood up and began yelling at Satya Nadella, Steve Ballmer, and Bill Gates — the company’s current and past CEOs — in protest of Microsoft’s dealings with the government of Israel.

“Shame on you all. You’re all hypocrites,” said Microsoft employee Vaniya Agrawal, as some in the crowd began to boo. “50,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been murdered with Microsoft technology. How dare you. Shame on all of you for celebrating on their blood. Cut ties with Israel.” The protestor then mentioned No Azure for Apartheid, the group that coordinated today’s protests both inside and outside the venue. It’s been a long-running movement among some employees at the company.

Microsoft is making changes to Copilot that will allow the artificial intelligence assistant to complete online tasks for you. Using “simple chat prompts,” these “Actions” can be performed in the background while you work on other tasks, according to Microsoft, and can do things like book restaurant reservations, event tickets, and purchase items to ship to your friends.

Launch partners include Booking.com, Expedia, Kayak, Tripadvisor, Skyscanner, Viator, Vrbo, and Priceline — a host of travel and vacation-focused services that will allow Copilot to help users plan any upcoming trips — alongside Open Table for meals, and 1-800-Flowers.com for buying floral arrangements. Microsoft says that Copilot’s Actions feature will “work with most websites across the web,” and can sort out “the ride home” for you after events, suggesting it will also support taxi or ride-sharing services.

As it marks its 50th anniversary, Microsoft is updating Copilot with a host of new features all at once that bring it more in line with alternatives like ChatGPT or Claude. The AI assistant, which uses many OpenAI models, now supports memory, personalization, web-based actions, podcast creation, camera and screen analysis, deep research, and even more.

With Memory, Copilot will now be able to keep track of your preferences, interests, and details like your birthday, and use the information to tailor responses and advice or make proactive suggestions. Microsoft says that users can choose what information they want Copilot to remember, or opt out entirely.

Fifty years ago today, Micro-Soft was founded by friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen. As the name implies, Microsoft was originally focused on microprocessors and software, and Gates and Allen created the company to develop software for the Altair 8800, an early personal computer.

Founded on April 4th, 1975, Microsoft went on to strike a deal with IBM to provide software for its first PC in 1980. This became the foundation of MS-DOS, which dominated IBM-compatible PCs during the ’80s. Microsoft’s early success in developing software for PCs eventually led to the first version of Windows in 1985 and a dream of a PC on every desk and in every home.

Microsoft is making its AI features widely available on Copilot Plus PCs equipped with Intel and AMD chips. One of the most notable of these features will be Live Captions, which translates audio to English subtitles from dozens of different languages in real time.

Microsoft first started testing Live Captions on Intel and AMD devices last December, and it’s now available through the latest Windows 11 update. The update also includes Cocreator, an AI tool in Paint that creates an image based on a text description and what you’re currently drawing. On top of that, Microsoft is also expanding access to its AI image editor and generator in the Photos app.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella moved quickly to get DeepSeek’s R1 deployed on Azure in January. Nadella appeared to have anticipated the rise of a breakthrough like R1, and now he says a new bar has been set for the company’s own AI work.

Speaking at an employee-only town hall last month, Nadella and his senior leadership team discussed DeepSeek and the company’s own $80 billion investment into AI at length, answering questions from employees about the giant spend and its effect on Microsoft’s carbon-free goals, sources at the company tell me.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is moving the company’s HR chief, Kathleen Hogan, into a new role focused on corporate strategy. Announced in an internal memo to Microsoft employees this morning, Hogan will report directly to Nadella and be responsible for strategy and transformation.

Hogan has been at Microsoft for more than 20 years and spent the past decade as the company’s chief people officer. She helped usher in a new work culture at Microsoft and took on the head of HR role shortly after Nadella became CEO in 2014. Now, Hogan has to steer strategy through the rapid changes of Microsoft’s AI era.

Microsoft has started sending out invites to a 50th anniversary and Copilot event at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington. The April 4th event will take place on the day Microsoft marks 50 years since it was first founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975.

The event on Microsoft’s campus will include an employee-only celebration of the company’s 50 years, alongside details on what’s next for the consumer side of Microsoft’s Copilot AI companion. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, and other “leaders of past and present” will be part of the Copilot and 50th anniversary event.

Microsoft is finally rolling out a native version of its Copilot Windows app, nearly a year after turning it into a basic web app. A new Copilot app is rolling out to Windows Insiders this week that’s built using native XAML and includes a new side panel and an improved UI.

The Copilot app on Windows now matches the design of the recently launched Copilot app for macOS, which lets you upload images and generate images or text. You can also interact with Copilot using a microphone, and access conversation history in the updated sidebar.

Microsoft is starting to test its new Copilot Vision feature today. Originally unveiled in October, Copilot Vision allows Microsoft’s AI companion to see what you see on an Edge webpage you’re browsing. You can then ask it questions about the text, images, and content you’re viewing or use it to assist you.

“When you choose to enable Copilot Vision, it sees the page you’re on, it reads along with you, and you can talk through the problem you’re facing together,” says the Copilot team in a blog post. “Browsing no longer needs to be a lonely experience with just you and all your tabs.”