WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.720 It's hard to imagine an iPhone without Siri, an Android phone without the Google Assistant, 00:00:04.720 --> 00:00:08.720 or an Amazon speaker that doesn't annoy you with unnecessary Alexa notifications. 00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:12.000 But could you imagine Windows without Cortana? 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:18.400 Actually, yes. And apparently, Microsoft can too, as Cortana support is ending later in 2023. 00:00:18.400 --> 00:00:23.040 But seeing as all of Microsoft's competitors are fully committed to their own voice AIs, 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, 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:32.240 as it was originally envisioned as a voice assistant for phones. 00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:35.440 But of course, Windows phones struggled mightily in the marketplace, 00:00:35.440 --> 00:00:39.760 and on top of that, Cortana was a reflection of Microsoft misunderstanding, 00:00:39.760 --> 00:00:43.520 again, how folks wanted to interact with their devices. 00:00:43.520 --> 00:00:48.000 We saw the beginnings of this with Windows 8, where Microsoft tried to force an interface 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:52.160 optimized for touchscreens onto traditional desktops and laptops. 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, 00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:04.880 as Microsoft was trying to integrate its phone ecosystem more deeply into Windows. 00:01:04.880 --> 00:01:09.360 Not only was phone integration not a particularly in-demand feature, 00:01:09.360 --> 00:01:14.320 but Cortana was still first and foremost a voice assistant, even in Windows, 00:01:14.320 --> 00:01:19.200 an operating system where it just isn't that difficult to accomplish tasks with a keyboard 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:24.640 and mouse. This meant that Cortana didn't offer much that consumers weren't already getting. 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. 00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:37.840 Eventually, Microsoft began to see Amazon's Alexa as a much more successful model 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. 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:49.360 But by this time, Microsoft was already behind the curve, 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. 00:01:55.760 --> 00:02:02.720 Exactly one smart speaker. The Harman Kardon Invoke that sold for a whopping $200. 00:02:02.720 --> 00:02:06.960 A far cry from devices like the Echo Dot that cost less than 50 bucks. 00:02:06.960 --> 00:02:12.160 Okay, regardless of the timing and the botched rollout, was Cortana actually that bad? 00:02:12.160 --> 00:02:16.000 When Cortana first came out, she actually got fairly positive reviews, 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. 00:02:24.640 --> 00:02:28.160 Meanwhile, the assistants with much larger user bases like Siri 00:02:28.160 --> 00:02:31.600 were also having a hard time monetizing effectively. 00:02:31.600 --> 00:02:35.360 It's no secret that Amazon has lost a great deal of money on Alexa, 00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:39.360 because all those play this song and turn off the lights commands, 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:43.440 haven't translated into cash flowing into the corporate coffers, 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, 00:02:51.760 --> 00:02:55.440 being in the edge browser, hey, did you know about those? 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, 00:03:00.640 --> 00:03:05.840 but doesn't even seem to affect softer concerns like brand awareness or goodwill with customers. 00:03:06.480 --> 00:03:12.320 Definitely not. Unlike Alexa and Siri, which are almost synonymous with Amazon and Apple by now. 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, 00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:21.520 the pandemic really stopped any meaningful improvements right in their tracks. 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:25.360 Microsoft was actively trying to improve Cortana when COVID hit, 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:30.240 but closures of some important facilities at the Microsoft campus stifled progress, 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. 00:03:36.160 --> 00:03:40.960 Fast forward to the present day and Microsoft has invested heavily in AI, 00:03:41.040 --> 00:03:45.120 but in areas that make more sense to them than a voice assistant. 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, 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:55.040 which integrates a large language model directly into Office and Windows itself 00:03:55.040 --> 00:04:01.040 to accomplish tasks like auto-generating reports, creating graphs, or analyzing trends from existing data. 00:04:01.040 --> 00:04:05.440 Copilot is already present in some features of Windows 11 and the edge browser, 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. 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. 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. 00:04:20.960 --> 00:04:24.560 Nice job. Thanks. Like the video if you like it, dislike it if you dislike it. 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. 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. 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:35.440 You can watch them all.