There is even an Easter egg hidden inside Mico that turns into the Clippy icon|microsoftcopilot|Instagram
Nearly 30 years after Clippy first popped up in Microsoft Office, the tech giant is giving its virtual assistant another shot with Mico—a lively, expressive orb built into the Copilot chatbot’s voice mode.
“Clippy walked so that we could run,” says Jacob Andreou, corporate VP of product and growth at Microsoft AI. There is even an Easter egg hidden inside Mico that turns into the Clippy icon, which Andreou demonstrates in an interview with The Verge.
Currently available to US users, Mico reacts to emotions, changes colors, and dons glasses in “study mode.” It uses real-time facial reactions, memory, and learning tools to feel more like a conversational companion.
Andreou emphasized that Mico is meant to be “genuinely useful,” and not addictive or biased. As regulators and parents scrutinize AI’s effects on kids and mental health, Microsoft is positioning Mico as a safe and balanced digital companion.
Microsoft executives say the AI assistant is part of their push to make users talk to the PC, with Windows 11 ads branding it as “the computer you can talk to.”