In the beginning, there was Siri, Google, Alexa… our AI overlords are assembling, and now it seems they include – Clippy?! Is that you?!
Of course, most of us remember good ol’ Clippy. They were the assistant you’d find in Microsoft Office, usually trying to correct your spelling in the late ’90s and early 2000s.
They looked like the image on the right, and would often give you judging looks whenever your grammar would come into question. They’d make you second guess yourself on more than one occasion, and sometimes drive you to distraction when you just HAD TO GET THROUGH THIS FINAL SENTENCE WITHOUT BEING INTERRUPTED BY…
Aaaaaanyway, Clippy is making an unofficial return, via a new app for Windows 11, and will be more powerful than ever before with the help of OpenAI’s ChatGPT 3.5 large language model.
Firecube Studios are responsible for this new Clippy. They’ve already made some other Windows 11 apps, but this one will essentially bring ChatGPT to your desktop (do we like that? Are we excited about it, or nervous?).
You’ll be able to ask Clippy just about anything you like, Windows-related or not. Go on, ask them sex questions, just for a laugh. I dare you.
Clippy will also be able to change your Windows settings, if you ask them nicely enough – or tell you how to do it yourself so you don’t become too reliant on robots for the rest of your life. Anyway, for that reason, it’s being compared to the official Windows Copilot.
Clippy, in its current form, requires you to provide your own OpenAI API key, but once the the final version is out, it should be a whole lot easier to set up.
The app’s settings also allow you to change how many API tokens can be used for each question you ask – and this in turn changes the length of responses you receive.
Despite the current familiar Clippy look, there are also plans to reintroduce other classic Microsoft characters like Bob – and a more classic Clippy design, for even more nostaligia.
Clippy is available to download from the Microsoft Store right now. Do it if you dare!
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