Microsoft highlights AI progress with Copilot updates, Quake II simulation

On its 50th anniversary, US-based technology giant Microsoft has previewed new features coming to Copilot and an AI-generated demo for its classic Quake II video gameplay

As Microsoft celebrated its 50th anniversary, the tech giant marked the occasion with a wave of new artificial intelligence (AI) features and research demonstrations, ranging from updates to its Copilot assistant to an AI-generated demo preview for its classic Quake II video gameplay. Here is all you need to know:

 

Copilot gets smarter

 

Microsoft’s AI assistant Copilot can now perform tasks directly on most websites, including booking tickets, making reservations, and even monitoring price drops for products. It also remembers user preferences, such as favorite foods or frequently visited platforms, offering personalised suggestions and reminders. Users remain in control of this memory feature, with options to delete individual entries or opt out entirely through a user dashboard.

 

The AI assistant can now analyse real-time visuals through phone cameras, allowing it to answer context-aware questions like identifying objects in photos. On Windows, Copilot gains desktop-level awareness, enabling it to interact with what’s on the screen, adjust settings, and help organise files. This feature will first roll out to Windows Insider Program members.

 

Microsoft has also added Pages, a project workspace that organises notes and research into a unified canvas. Alongside this, a new Deep Research mode pulls information from documents, online sources, and images to tackle more complex prompts, akin to what competitors like ChatGPT and Google Gemini offer.

 

In another creative addition, Copilot can now generate audio-based content resembling a podcast. When given a source such as a web article or study, it produces a scripted dialogue between AI hosts, which users can interrupt with questions in real-time.

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Playable AI demo: Quake II reimagined

 

Beyond productivity tools, Microsoft also explored the future of AI in gaming. To demonstrate the potential of its in-house Muse AI model, the company released a browser-based, interactive version of Quake II. This isn’t a remastered version of the original game, but a simulation powered by AI that allows basic interaction inside a recreated environment.

 

Users can briefly explore a single level of the game using standard controls—jumping, crouching, shooting, and interacting with in-game elements like explosive barrels. The model simulates the gameplay environment in real time, offering what Microsoft researchers call an experience of “playing inside the model.”

 

However, this demo remains a research prototype with acknowledged limitations. For example, the AI struggles with object permanence, which essentially means that it often forgets about elements that leave the player’s view for more than a second. While researchers noted that this leads to some entertaining outcomes, such as spawning enemies by looking away, critics have highlighted deeper flaws.  ALSO READ | Meta releases open-weight Llama 4 AI models to rival DeepSeek, Google Gemma

 

According to a report by TechCrunch, game designer Austin Walker argued that such AI-based recreations miss the essence of what makes classic games unique: their meticulously crafted code, systems, and edge cases. He emphasised that replicating visuals without the internal logic of original game engines doesn’t preserve the true experience of gameplay.