Microsoft is quietly dropping its Cortana smart assistant from Windows, joining the growing ranks of tech firms abandoning their smart assistants in favor of artificial intelligence in the form of Large Language Model-powered chatbots.
Microsoft began removing Cortana support on mobile in 2021, making the assistant’s “death” a long time coming.
In a Microsoft support document shared by Windows Latest, the Redmond firm says support for Cortana as a separate Windows app will be terminated in August 2023. While a specific date for the shutdown is not mentioned, we can likely expect an update to delete Cortana any day now.
However, Cortana will continue to be available in Microsoft Teams display, Microsoft Teams rooms, Outlook mobile, and Teams mobile.
Microsoft is turning its attention to its Open AI partnership. The company’s “Bing Chat” is a Large Language Model-powered chatbot that allows users to ask complex questions.
Several tech firms had virtual assistants, including Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Samsung’s Bixby, Google’s Assistant, and several others.
Microsoft is just the latest to pull out of the smart assistant space. In November, we saw Amazon lay off a good portion of its Alexa personnel, and Samsung began pulling away from Bixby in favor of using Google Assistant back in 2020.
Google is also apparently dropping any further development of its assistant in favor of its AI-powered “Bard.” Google’s discussions about AI at its 2023 I/O were focused on Bard and other LLM projects.
Apple is still hanging in there with Siri, even as it is increasing its spending on developing AI chatbots. There reportedly have been internal arguments about developing a Bard-like assistant. However, Apple’s well-known concern about users’ privacy is delaying any big moves in the space.
Apple is unlikely to drop the Siri name for its assistant, even if it becomes AI-powered in the future, as the name is so well-known, Apple would likely be reluctant to stop using the moniker in favor of a new name.