Microsoft is trying to rebrand its Edge web browser. Its name should no longer remind you that its icon shortcut sits alone and forgotten on the edge of the Windows desktop. Now Microsoft is trying to claim that Edge is in the cutting edge edge of AI. The Redmond tech giant started calling its native web explorer “Microsoft Edge: AI Browser.” If you think this is already a bit on the nose, expect more companies to do it next year.
The alias appears when searching for Edge in the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store (although “browser” is lowercase in Play Store, for some reason). Microsoft already called it “your browser with artificial intelligence” after adding Bing AI capabilities to it last year, but now the “AI” is right up front for those who download the mobile app. The description for the app now talks about the browser GPT-4 capabilities with the built-in Copilot chatbot that follows from Bing search. The browser also has access to OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 AI imaging model, accessible via copilot. The lip first noticed this name change. Microsoft updated its app store pages over the holidays.
At the same time, Microsoft quietly released a full Copilot app on both iOS and Android. It is essentially the same deal as the ChatGPT app (although it gives you free access to GPT-4), offering users access to Copilot chatbot features and DALL-E image generation. Unlike Copilot on Bing or on desktop, it doesn’t have access to your usage history in any of your other apps, so while you can ask it to compose your dry work emails for you, it’s up to each user to copy and paste the text.
Apple has some (supposedly) strict privacy requirements for applications available on its devices. The App Store description also spends a lot of time describing Edge’s privacy features, noting that there is no “stored search history” in Bing or users’ Microsoft accounts. However, in the company Terms of use under the “AI Services” section, Microsoft notes that it processes and stores your AI inputs “for the purposes of monitoring and preventing abusive or harmful uses or outputs of the service.” The company has previously claimed in a suspension last year that Bing Enterprise Chat, the business version of Bing AI, does not store chat data and that “no one at Microsoft can see your data.”
However, none of these brands appear when you search for Edge in the Microsoft Store. That’s likely because all Windows PCs already ship with Edge, but it also shows how CEO Satya Nadella and company are trying to be the first to try and surf the AI branding tsunami that’s about to crash on our heads in 2024.
So you already have “E-” and “Smart-” technology devices, but the next big change this year will be explicitly “AI-” branded devices. We’ve got CES just around the corner, and already, we’re seeing devices that use modern deep learning algorithms putting “AI” at the forefront. Take LG’s Signature OLED M4 and G4 TVs, the company just announced today. These TVs feature a “cutting-edge AI processor,” claiming to help improve picture quality by upgrading with enhanced AI. We won’t see them in person for another week, so we don’t know if said processor results in a marginally better screen, but it’s not really that.
It’s just one more step before LG or other TV manufacturers call their devices ‘TV TVs’. Next week, we’ll see even more devices pushing AI ahead of time. We’ll likely see AI making its way into refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, massage chairs, and many more obvious consumer devices. Google and Samsung are in a race to promote their smartphones as the “true AI phone”. Last year, Intel debuted its new mobile chip trying to coin the term ‘AI PC’.
So don’t be surprised this year if you read something about the new “AI e-bike” or the renamed “AI toilet”. Eventually, the word will be as ubiquitous as “smart” is now, as it becomes so universal that the term becomes completely meaningless.