Microsoft’s annual developer’s conference has arrived, and a slew of big announcements have already been unveiled. AI is, obviously, the big theme of the event and continues to be top-of-radar for Microsoft and the entire tech community.
But there are also some big announcements for Windows, the Edge browser, Teams, and more.
If you thought Microsoft would slow down on its investment in AI after the rush to Bing Chat earlier this year, you’d be dead wrong. Not only is Bing Chat coming to every Microsoft 365 app, but it’s now also coming to Windows 11 itself. That’s right — it’s called the Windows Copilot, an AI assistant that follows you wherever you go within the operating system.
You can use it to search the internet, of course, but it can also complete actions for you and interact with apps you have open contextually. We’re really curious to see how useful Windows Copilot is, but there’s no question it’s a huge moment for AI. No websites or logins needed — this stuff is going to be baked right into your computer’s operating system.
Third-party plugins have been a huge deal for ChatGPT, opening up how the AI can interact with specific applications. However, so far, they’ve only been available for ChatGPT Plus. Bing Chat plugins will share the same plugin standard that OpenAI uses, meaning they will be fully interoperable across both ChatGPT and all of Microsoft’s Copilot offerings. That also means developers can create plugins that will work in ChatGPT, as well as for Microsoft 365 applications like Word or Powerpoint.
Adding on to the already-announced plugins like OpenTable and Wolfram Alpha, Microsoft is also introducing Instacart, Kayak, Klarna, Redfin and Zillow, and more.
With all the talk of AI, the question of plagiarism and media literacy has been a primary concern. Google announced its own attempt to correct this problem, and now Microsoft is bringing AI detection to Bing Image Creator and Microsoft Designer. By using cryptographic methods to identify metadata, AI-generated content will be tagged as such in the coming months.
So far, it will only be support for major image and video formats — AI-generated text is, obviously, still increasingly difficult to detect.
Microsoft had a couple of interesting Edge browser updates, including the launch of workspaces. On one hand, Workspaces is Microsoft’s answer to tab groups, which is what Chrome uses to help people organize tabs. Workspaces allows you to collect together different websites into a single folder, which can easily be navigated between in a table of contents. This was originally announced in 2022, and according to Microsoft, became “one of the most popular Edge features in preview testing.” Microsoft says it will become generally available in the next few months for both enterprise and, eventually, consumers at large.
Microsoft also showcased an update to Microsoft Edge for Business, which provides “a dedicated work experience” for employees at companies. Most importantly, there’s a neat way of switching directly between work and personal with a simple toggle.
Last year at Build, the metaverse was all anyone could about. That’s changed significantly in the course of a year, but Microsoft hasn’t given up on the idea entirely yet. Two of the most important Microsoft Mesh features are finally rolling out to users: avatars in calls and virtual spaces. Avatars lets you have an alternative to camera or no camera, with the option for a 3D avatar. Virtual spaces, meanwhile, lets you bring those avatars into 3D environments to interact in instead of generic video calls. These virtual spaces are ideally experienced VR, but can also be used in 2D.
Starting today, you’ll be able to check out both features in private preview.
Did you think hitting delete on your AI chatbot conversation actually makes it disappear? Georgia Tech researchers just proved that's not entirely true. They have built a forensic tool called ORISA that can dig deleted conversations from your phone and even rebuild them into a working chatbot session you can keep talking to.
How can ORISA bring deleted AI conversations back?
Touchscreen laptops have been around for years. You can get them in all sizes and shapes. Just not from Apple. For years, the Cupertino giant has treated the idea of a touchscreen MacBook the way I treat a meeting that could have been an email: with open contempt. However, Wednesday looks like the day the company could finally change its mind.
The latest Apple invite puts the “Pro and Tell” showcase in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on October 28, 2026. Instead of a regular live-streamed keynote, it is an invitation-only, hands-on event for a handful of press and creators (similar to what the company did for the MacBook Neo earlier this year).
Two residents of Chicago have filed a lawsuit in the US over claims that robots run by Coco Robotics and Serve Robotics captured their facial and hand measurements without consent, bringing renewed attention to the food delivery robots. The cases raise a troubling question: If a robot delivers food to your door, can it also be gathering sensitive information about you?
According to a report by The Associated Press, the proposed class-action lawsuits were filed in Cook County on Oct. 9 and allege violations of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. The complaints claim that the robots’ cameras and LiDAR sensors captured information on customers’ faces and hands as they approached the machines to pick up their orders. Both have denied the allegations.