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Clippy, the animated paper clip that annoyed Microsoft Office users nearly three decades ago, might have just been ahead of its time. Microsoft introduced a new artificial intelligence character called Mico (pronounced MEE’koh) on Thursday, a floating cartoon face shaped like a blob or flame that will embody the software giant’s Copilot virtual assistant and marks the latest attempt by tech companies to imbue their AI chatbots with more of a personality. Copilot’s cute new emoji-like exterior comes as AI developers face a crossroads in how they present their increasingly capable chatbots to consumers without causing harm or backlash. Some have opted for faceless symbols, others like Elon Musk’s xAI are selling flirtatious, human-like avatars, and Microsoft is looking for a middle ground that’s friendly without being obsequious. When you talk about something sad, you can see Micos face change. You can see it dance around and move as it gets excited with you, said Jacob Andreou, corporate vice president of product and growth for Microsoft AI, in an interview with The Associated Press. Its in this effort of really landing this AI companion that you can really feel. In the U.S. only so far, Copilot users on laptops and phone apps can speak to Mico, which changes colors, spins around and wears glasses when in study mode. It’s also easy to shut off, which is a big difference from Microsoft’s Clippit, better known as Clippy and infamous for its persistence in offering advice on word processing tools when it first appeared on desktop screens in 1997. It was not well-attuned to user needs at the time, said Bryan Reimer, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Microsoft pushed it, we resisted it and they got rid of it. I think were much more ready for things like that today. Reimer, co-author of a new book called How to Make AI Useful, said AI developers are balancing how much personality to give AI assistants based on who their expected users are. Tech-savvy adopters of advanced AI coding tools may want it to act much more like a machine because at the back end they know its a machine, Reimer said. But individuals who are not as trustful in a machine are going to be best supported not replaced by technology that feels a little more like a human. Microsoft, a provider of work productivity tools that is far less reliant on digital advertising revenue than its Big Tech competitors, also has less incentive to make its AI companion overly engaging in a way that’s been tied to social isolation, harmful misinformation and, in some cases, suicides. Andreou said Microsoft has watched as some AI developers veered away from giving AI any sort of embodiment, while others are moving in the opposite direction in enabling AI girlfriends. Those two paths dont really resonate with us that much, he said. Andreou said the companion’s design is meant to be genuinely useful and not so validating that it would tell us exactly what we want to hear, confirm biases we already have, or even suck you in from a time-spent perspective and just kind of try to kind of monopolize and deepen the session and increase the time youre spending with these systems. Being sycophantic short-term, maybe has a user respond more favorably, Andreou said. But long term, its actually not moving that person closer to their goals. Part of Microsoft’s announcements on Thursday includes the ability to invite Copilot into a group chat, an idea that resembles how AI has been integrated into social media platforms like Snapchat, where Andreou used to work, or Meta’s WhatsApp and Instagram. But Andreou said those interactions have often involved bringing in AI as a joke to troll your friends, which is different from the intensely collaborative AI-assisted workplace Microsoft has in mind. Microsoft’s audience includes kids, as part of its longtime competition with Google and other tech companies to supply its technology to classrooms. Microsoft also said Thursday it’s added a feature to turn Copilot into a voice-enabled, Socratic tutor that guides students through concepts they’re studying at school. A growing number of kids use AI chatbots for everything from homework help to personal advice, emotional support and everyday decision-making. The Federal Trade Commission launched an inquiry last month into several social media and AI companies Microsoft wasn’t one of them about the potential harms to children and teenagers who use their AI chatbots as companions. Thats after some chatbots have been shown to give kids dangerous advice about topics such as drugs, alcohol and eating disorders. The mother of a teenage boy in Florida who killed himself after developing what she described as an emotionally and sexually abusive relationship with a chatbot filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Character. AI. And the parents of a 16-year-old sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman in August, alleging that ChatGPT coached the California boy in planning and taking his own life. Altman recently promised a new version of ChatGPT coming this fall that restores some of the personality of earlier versions, which he said the company temporarily halted because we were being careful with mental health issues that he suggested have now been fixed. If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it, Altman said on X. (In the same post, he also said OpenAI will later enable ChatGPT to engage in erotica for verified adults, which got more attention.) Matt O’Brien, AP technology writer
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President Donald Trump has pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who created the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange and served prison time after failing to stop criminals from using the platform to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking, and terrorism. Zhao had asked Trump for a pardon previously. He has deep ties to World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that the Republican president and his sons Eric and Donald Jr. launched in September. Trumps most recent financial disclosure report reveals he made more than $57 million last year from World Liberty Financial, which has launched USD1, a stablecoin pegged at a 1-to-1 ratio to the U.S. dollar. World Liberty Financial also recently announced that an investment fund in the United Arab Emirates would be using $2 billion worth of USD1 to purchase a stake in Binance. Zhao also has publicly said that he had asked Trump for a pardon that could nullify his conviction. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Thursday that the Biden administration prosecuted Zhao out of a desire to punish the cryptocurrency industry. She said there were no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims, though Zhao had pleaded guilty in November to one count of failing to maintain an anti-money-laundering program. I failed here, Zhao told the court last year. I deeply regret my failure, and I am sorry. Will Weissert, Associated Press
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As weather disasters become more and more frequent, the home insurance system feels broken for Americans across the country. Now, the advocacy nonprofit Consumer Reports is trying to implement a homeowners insurance bill of rights to codify baseline protections across all 50 states. According to a survey from the group, homeowners have seen their insurance rates climblike Sierra in North Carolina, whose insurance spiked 43% last year, with her provider citing the increased regional weather risks as well as Hurricane Helenes impact specifically. Theyve been denied payouts, like Charmian in Illinois, who says their provider refused to pay for hail damage on their roof. Hail storms are becoming both more frequent and more damaging as global temperatures rise. And some homeowners have been outright abandoned as insurance companies flee high-risk states and drop long-time customers. Because of the growing risk of wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and other disasters, homeowners have been dropped in states including California, Florida, and Louisiana, among others. Vicki in California is one example, even after she spent money on fire protection measures. An industry ‘almost universally disliked’ Sierra, Charmian, and Vicki are some of the more than 500 Consumer Reports members who shared their insurance stories with the nonprofit when it began to look into the home insurance market. Consumer Reports rates all sorts of products and services, from appliances to electric vehicles to anti-virus software. But it only just started covering insurance providers this year. The focus on home insurance was prompted by the January wildfires in Los Angelesand the news that major providers like State Farm and other insurers had canceled hundreds of policies in the months before that disaster hit. It’s really been a flood of heartbreaking stories of people who have lost their homes that didn’t even know that they were in extreme weather risk regions and didn’t have sufficient insurance or even insurance at all to help rebuild, says Sara Enright, Consumer Reports senior director of safety and sustainability advocacy. Consumer Reports put out the call for stories from its members that January, and received responses filled with frustrations like reduced or eliminated coverage and skyrocketing rates from all 50 states. In September, Consumer Reports revealed its ratings of best and worst homeowners insurance, the first time it did such a list. The nonprofit looked at 28 providers, but after surveying 24,000 policyholders, only three received a Consumer Reports recommendation. That’s pretty poor showing, Enright says. This is an industry that’s almost universally disliked by its customers. Nine rights for homeowners The insurance industry is clearly struggling with the realities of climate change, and the extent to which extreme weather is becoming more common. The scale of damage is increasing to such an extent that traditional insurance models no longer apply to our current reality. Consumer Reports wanted to help figure out some solutions. We felt that there are things that the insurance industry could do to ease the pain on their customers in the meantime, as they figure out their business model under a world in which extreme weather events are going to occur more frequently, Enright says. So the nonprofit got to work writing up a Homeowners Insurance Bill of Rights, one that prioritized consumer voices. Along with more than 500 stories from members, it engaged more than 56,000 consumers in total to get feedback, which it then analyzed for certain themes. It also partnered with advocates that have studied insurance, like United Policy Holders and the Consumer Federation of America. It came up with nine rights it says all policyholders should be guaranteed, and which would make the home insurance market more fair: A clear, plain-language explanation of what isand isntcovered by your policy Knowing which risk factors are used to determine eligibility and set rates Fair access to coverage based on property risk, not your finances Receiving written notice and a full explanation well in advance of major changes to your insurance policy Benefitting from incentives to harden your home against severe weather or wildfire risk Insurance security during and after declared States of Emergency No penalties for inquiries and unpaid claims Prompt, full, and fair payment on a claim Immediate and adequate financial support for emergency housing and essentials Some of these rights seem obvious, or like theyd already existlike clear language around what a policy covers. But policies may not actually be that transparent to homeowners. Its also an intentional way to call out how the industry can seem unfair, and unaccountable to its customers. A lot of the rights cover things where youre like, Why doesnt that exist? Enright says. Right after a disaster, don’t drop your home insurance policy rightthat’s not legally required in most states, and that just seems like a very low hanging fruit for insurers to be able to say no were not going to abandon you in your time of need. A patchwork system Though some of these rights arent legally required in certain states, the majority are already covered by at least one state law. The problem is that the insurance industry is a patchwork system, with different requirements and responsibilities from state to state. We believe that those rights should then be extended to all policyholders, to create a stronger protection network for everybody, Enright says. Consumer Reports wanted to ensure that these rights were possible, and that they could get onboard. Though it’s a fact that companies will drop customers in high-risk areas like California, the nonprofit didnt feel it could call for a change to such business practices. Canceling policies because the risk is too high, or hiking insurance rates are business decisions that have to be made in the time of climate change, Enright says. Obviously we think that those should be overseen by state regulators, but it’s not something that we thought we could voluntarily ask insurance companies to say that they would stop doing. But the bill of rights does call for actions like providing enough advanced notice so homeoners can respond, fight back, or find a new provider before their insurance ends. The full bill of rights also shares some tips for what homeowners can do to protect themselves in the meantime, before these rights are (hopefully) enactedsuggestions like asking if any risk scores were used to determine their premiums, and how they could improve their risk score to lower their rate. Theres a customer education component to this crisis, Enright adds; many people dont even know their basic home insurance package doesnt cover flooding, for example. Consumer Reports next steps Still, Consumer Reports wants the insurance companies to adopt these rights, and state legislators to codify them. They were formed so as not to require dramatic business changes, Enright says, and Consumer Reports is also reaching out to all 28 insurers it rated this year to talk about how they can implement these changes. Our hope is that insurers will see some value in adopting, as an industry, universal rights that will level the playing field for all of them so that they are competing on customer service as much as anything else, she says. The nonprofit is also reaching out to industry groups and talking to state legislators about putting consumer protection policies in place. The insurance industry is legislated at the state level, so thats where Consumer Reports is focusing. Consumer Reports also launched a petition asking for signatures in support of the Homeowners Insurance Bill of Rights. At the federal level, like around FEMA or federal flood insurance, details are still up in the air as the Trump administration has cut departments and slashed services. Trumps moves to gut the NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, may actually increase home insurance premiums and make companies drop even more homeowners, experts warned back in February, because the data that department once provided is crucial to understanding risk. Though Consumer Reports member stories reveal how frustrated homeowners are with their insurance companies, Enright wants to note that this effort isnt about painting insurers as bad actors. This is a story about us adapting to extreme weather events driven by climate change, she says. We have to work together. We need the insurance industry to be strong so that communities can get through extreme weather events and be resilient. We need to find solutions that work both for insurance companies as well as consumers.
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