1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,720 It's hard to imagine an iPhone without Siri, an Android phone without the Google Assistant, 2 00:00:04,720 --> 00:00:08,720 or an Amazon speaker that doesn't annoy you with unnecessary Alexa notifications. 3 00:00:08,720 --> 00:00:12,000 But could you imagine Windows without Cortana? 4 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:18,400 Actually, yes. And apparently, Microsoft can too, as Cortana support is ending later in 2023. 5 00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:23,040 But seeing as all of Microsoft's competitors are fully committed to their own voice AIs, 6 00:00:23,040 --> 00:00:28,640 why the heck is Microsoft pulling the plug? You could argue that the Cortana project was doomed from the get-go, 7 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:32,240 as it was originally envisioned as a voice assistant for phones. 8 00:00:32,240 --> 00:00:35,440 But of course, Windows phones struggled mightily in the marketplace, 9 00:00:35,440 --> 00:00:39,760 and on top of that, Cortana was a reflection of Microsoft misunderstanding, 10 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:43,520 again, how folks wanted to interact with their devices. 11 00:00:43,520 --> 00:00:48,000 We saw the beginnings of this with Windows 8, where Microsoft tried to force an interface 12 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:52,160 optimized for touchscreens onto traditional desktops and laptops. 13 00:00:52,160 --> 00:00:59,520 Although this was mercifully de-emphasized in Windows 10, this was also the same version of Windows where Cortana made her debut, 14 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:04,880 as Microsoft was trying to integrate its phone ecosystem more deeply into Windows. 15 00:01:04,880 --> 00:01:09,360 Not only was phone integration not a particularly in-demand feature, 16 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:14,320 but Cortana was still first and foremost a voice assistant, even in Windows, 17 00:01:14,320 --> 00:01:19,200 an operating system where it just isn't that difficult to accomplish tasks with a keyboard 18 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:24,640 and mouse. This meant that Cortana didn't offer much that consumers weren't already getting. 19 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:32,640 Not to mention that she could be annoyingly intrusive, unlike competitors that, to varying degrees, tended to stay out of the way a bit more. 20 00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:37,840 Eventually, Microsoft began to see Amazon's Alexa as a much more successful model 21 00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:45,840 for how to properly deploy a voice assistant, integrate it into smart speakers that can quickly accomplish tasks when you're away from a computer. 22 00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:49,360 But by this time, Microsoft was already behind the curve, 23 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:55,760 and it wasn't until late 2017 that the company was finally able to get Cortana into a smart speaker. 24 00:01:55,760 --> 00:02:02,720 Exactly one smart speaker. The Harman Kardon Invoke that sold for a whopping $200. 25 00:02:02,720 --> 00:02:06,960 A far cry from devices like the Echo Dot that cost less than 50 bucks. 26 00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:12,160 Okay, regardless of the timing and the botched rollout, was Cortana actually that bad? 27 00:02:12,160 --> 00:02:16,000 When Cortana first came out, she actually got fairly positive reviews, 28 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:24,640 despite being a little rough around the edges. The problem was she wasn't good enough to be useful in your PC, so the user base was pretty small. 29 00:02:24,640 --> 00:02:28,160 Meanwhile, the assistants with much larger user bases like Siri 30 00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:31,600 were also having a hard time monetizing effectively. 31 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:35,360 It's no secret that Amazon has lost a great deal of money on Alexa, 32 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:39,360 because all those play this song and turn off the lights commands, 33 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:43,440 haven't translated into cash flowing into the corporate coffers, 34 00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:51,760 and Google has faced similar problems with its assistant. Although Microsoft is, of course, trying to continue selling services through little nudges in Windows, 35 00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:55,440 being in the edge browser, hey, did you know about those? 36 00:02:55,440 --> 00:03:00,640 It doesn't make sense for Microsoft to keep pouring resources into a feature that not only doesn't make the money, 37 00:03:00,640 --> 00:03:05,840 but doesn't even seem to affect softer concerns like brand awareness or goodwill with customers. 38 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:12,320 Definitely not. Unlike Alexa and Siri, which are almost synonymous with Amazon and Apple by now. 39 00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:17,360 And while Microsoft didn't just give up on Cortana as soon as things started looking a bit grim, 40 00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:21,520 the pandemic really stopped any meaningful improvements right in their tracks. 41 00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:25,360 Microsoft was actively trying to improve Cortana when COVID hit, 42 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:30,240 but closures of some important facilities at the Microsoft campus stifled progress, 43 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:36,160 such as a very expensive soundproof chamber where they were testing some of Cortana's voice functionality. 44 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:40,960 Fast forward to the present day and Microsoft has invested heavily in AI, 45 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:45,120 but in areas that make more sense to them than a voice assistant. 46 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:50,400 The next big thing for Microsoft looks like Copilot, a project developed by GitHub and Open AI, 47 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:55,040 which integrates a large language model directly into Office and Windows itself 48 00:03:55,040 --> 00:04:01,040 to accomplish tasks like auto-generating reports, creating graphs, or analyzing trends from existing data. 49 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:05,440 Copilot is already present in some features of Windows 11 and the edge browser, 50 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:10,640 and it's fair to say that the next version of Windows as well will also feature AI heavily. 51 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:16,320 Cortana just won't be a part of it. But if you do miss hearing her dulcet tones, don't despair. 52 00:04:16,320 --> 00:04:20,960 All you have to do is fire up your copy of Halo. Hey, you watched a whole tech-quickie. 53 00:04:20,960 --> 00:04:24,560 Nice job. Thanks. Like the video if you like it, dislike it if you dislike it. 54 00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:29,280 Check out our other videos, comment below with video suggestions, and don't forget to subscribe and follow. 55 00:04:29,280 --> 00:04:34,000 There's, we make, we actually made like a lot of these. You can, there's, there's, there's a lot. 56 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:35,440 You can watch them all.