“Draft with Copilot” is an AI feature that was introduced to Edge relatively recently. The web browser was one of the first ways Microsoft introduced its Copilot AI assistant. The feature could be getting a minor upgrade soon.
Leopeva64, a reliable watcher of all things browsers, spotted the new development and highlighted it on X. He shared a number of screenshots (and animated GIFs) of the new feature “Draft with Copilot”, which is part of a preview version of Edge Canary.
In Edge Canary, there’s a new “Draft with Copilot” entry that appears in the context menu of editable text fields when they’re empty. If the field already contains text, the new entry won’t appear: https://t.co/aao0ullCQD.https://t.co/96Qc0JWjf5 pic.twitter.com/430YAAujAYJuly 19, 2024
As you might guess, the feature enlists the help of the AI to compose some text for you, and the addition here is that it’s now available when you right-click on an empty text field in Edge. When you launch Draft with Copilot in such an empty field, it will open a window for the AI assistant, and here you can enter the topic you want Copilot to compose some text about.
You can then click ‘Generate’ and watch Copilot work its magic as the AI whips up a chunk of text on your chosen topic. Once Copilot has made its offer, you can then adjust the tone and length of Copilot’s text to better suit your purpose, or simply play around with possible adjustments.
Currently, the feature is only supported in US English in the Edge browser, but I expect it to be available in other languages in the future.
The second GIF that Leopeva64 posted shows an interesting twist in the new update. Apparently, the “Draft with Copilot” option is not available when you right-click on an editable text field with text already in it. While this may change during testing, this is likely because there is already text there, so you don’t want to have to draft something from scratch.
Co-pilot as co-author
MS Power Userwho noticed this development points out that the concept is similar to Google Chrome’s ‘Help Me Write’ feature, and I agree.
Microsoft previously wrote a blog post about Copilot’s creative composition capabilities when working with text fields, describing how you can use the AI to “quickly generate well-written text to use as input text in text boxes” and further noting, “Using Copilot saves time because you don’t have to worry about creating text that adheres to grammar rules. Copilot is especially useful for users who use apps that are not in their native language.”
Something to think about carefully is the quality of the text that Copilot produces. Critics of AI-generated text generally complain that it can look very generic and read in a toneless, boring way – and that can be a problem if you want something to grab readers’ attention.
However, this particular implementation is more about throwing something together quickly and concisely, right in the browser. Copilot will probably do a better job in that regard. What it generates can also serve as a useful starting point to build on. It can also give you some more ideas.
Whatever the case, Copilot is slowly finding its way into more and more corners of Windows apps, including Edge, that much is clear.