Invite others to your AI convos 👥

Hi Non-Techies,

Autumn? Meh. Winter? I can take it or leave it. But release season? Yup, that’s a season I can get into.

And in case it wasn’t obvious by now, we’re right in the middle of it. Every big AI tool is rolling out new releases, and for an AI enthusiast like yours truly, it’s like Christmas has come early (but y’know, without the annoying songs).

Today, I’m filling you in on the latest releases from some of the big players: Copilot and OpenAI. Let’s not dilly-dally.

Copilot wins the collaboration race 🏆

Until now, using a chatbot has been a lonely experience. It’s a single-player game - collaboration happens between you and your tool of choice.

But that’s about to change.

Copilot (Microsoft’s version of ChatGPT) now supports collaborative sessions, which means you can invite other people into your chatbot conversation for AI-assisted team brainstorming.

It’s called “Groups”, and it’s the first time that a big AI chatbot has given us the option to turn chatbot sessions into a team event.

Groups is one of a dozen AI updates released by Microsoft (I’ll cover four others I’m excited about in the next section), and it marks the latest step in a journey that has taken Copilot from a B-team AI tool to one of the best out there.

At AI for Non-Techies, we’ve just released a 12-week Copilot training course. It’ll turn you from a novice into the AI authority in your workplace.

And hey, if you don’t want to learn more about Copilot for the functionality, do it for Mico, their new amorphous blob:

Four more need-to-know updates from Copilot 🫡

1) Connectors: Copilot now offers integration with external data and services (like your files in cloud storage) via “Connectors”. The demo included someone connecting Copilot with their Google Drive, which I didn’t expect, but it shows they want this feature to be genuinely helpful. There’s also a Connector for my beloved Claude!

2) Health-Related Queries: Here’s a pretty crazy stat: ~40% of users ask Copilot health-related questions every week. Because of that, Copilot’s health-answering capability is…well, healthier. They’ve teamed up with Harvard Health Publishing to provide better answers.

3) Study Mode: Much like NotebookLM's (probably superior) version, Copilot now has study-style tools (quizzes, flashcards) for interactive learning.

4) “Real Talk” interface: Ever feel like AI chatbots are a bit too…agreeable? Copilot now has a feature which mirrors your conversational (read: blunt) style and offers more candid responses.

Deep dive: ChatGPT’s new browser 👀

Meet Atlas: OpenAI’s new ChatGPT-powered internet browser.

The slightly more techie amongst you will know that Atlas isn’t the first fusion of an internet browser and a chatbot. Perplexity launched Comet back in July, and Google added some Gemini goodness to its Chrome browser recently, too.

But Atlas is exciting, because whenever OpenAI launches something big, it tends to set a new benchmark.

And in this case, Atlas does feel like the new benchmark for AI-powered browsers. It’s a sneak peek at the future of AI-assisted internet browsing.

Obviously, I gave it a try.

Atlas’s onboarding experience was pretty nice. I had the option to import my data from another browser (like bookmarks and stuff), and then I was asked whether I was happy to have memory switched on.

Memory is a cool feature - it means I can ask it questions like “You know those polkadot ear muffs I was browsing last week? Can you find them again for me?”.

Atlas’ homepage looks like ChatGPT, but with your tabs at the top.

I had to remember that the search bar isn’t Google, because I’m so used to just typing something like “AI for Non Techies” into my browser (probably with loads of typos) and getting a Google search result. That will take some getting used to.

But the biggest (and most useful, in my opinion) difference between Atlas and other internet browsers is the “Ask ChatGPT” button at the top-right of your window. You can ask it about anything you’re browsing and get instant answers.

So, if you’re on the AIFNT website and want to know if we’re legit, you can get ChatGPT to run a background check whilst you continue to browse:

Or maybe you’re browsing a holiday destination. You could ask ChatGPT about the weather in December without needing to specify where you’re referring.

What else can it do?

Atlas can also perform tasks for you. As the intro video demonstrates, you can ask it to shop for you, edit emails and browse on your behalf.

I’m pretty impressed. Like most of the stuff OpenAI puts out, Atlas is clean, no-nonsense, and intuitive in a way that won’t scare off Non-Techies.

But it also feels like a sign of things to come. It’s not hard to imagine that soon everything we do online will be AI-supported, from our Christmas shopping through to how we consume and process content.

Some more interesting stuff we found this week:

🚫 Bryan Cranston - as in, Breaking Bad Bryan - has released a joint statement with OpenAI after his voice and likeness were used on the Sora 2 app without his permission. OpenAI has committed to tightening the guardrails.

🎬 Speaking of Breaking Bad, Netflix is going “all in” on AI, according to their latest earnings report.

🌎 Google has revealed Google Earth AI, which combines Google Earth with fancy pants AI models to help tackle environmental risks, like flooding and wildfires.

Okay, time to design an amorphous blob for AI for Non Techies - apparently that’s the trendy thing to do during release season.

See you next week,

Heather and the AIFNT team.