copilot
In plain wordsAn AI assistant built into software that works alongside a person — suggesting code, drafting text or answering questions — while the person stays in charge, like a co-pilot beside the captain.
An AI assistant embedded in an application or workflow that offers suggestions, drafts and answers in context while the human user remains responsible for decisions and final output; the dominant product metaphor of the first wave of generative AIgenerative AI, n.: AI that produces something new on request, such as an essay, a picture, a song or a piece of code, having absorbed from enormous numbers of existing examples what such things typically look like. tools. The assistant is typically a large language modellarge language model, n.: A computer program trained on enormous amounts of text to predict the words that come next. At vast scale, that simple skill lets it chat, answer questions, translate, summarize and write code. given the user's current document, code or data as context, and interaction ranges from inline completion to chat. The framing deliberately signals human-in-the-loophuman-in-the-loop, adj.: Describes AI systems in which a person checks, corrects or approves the machine's work at key points, rather than letting it act entirely on its own. control and augmentation rather than replacement, and is contrasted with agentsAI agent, n.: An AI system that does not just answer but acts: given a goal, it decides on steps, uses tools such as a browser or code editor, checks the results and keeps going until the job is done., which carry out multi-step tasks autonomously. The word is both generic and a brand — GitHub popularized it and Microsoft extended 'Copilot' across its products — so usage can be ambiguous.
We started with a copilot that suggests replies; an agent that sends them is next quarter's project.
Origin
From aviation, where the co-pilot assists the pilot in command. GitHub's announcement of GitHub CopilotGitHub Copilot, prop. n.: An AI assistant from GitHub, built into programmers' code editors, that suggests code as they type, answers questions about code and can carry out coding tasks on its own., a code-completion tool built on OpenAI's Codex model, in June 2021 established the AI sense; Microsoft adopted Copilot as an umbrella brand from 2023, and lowercase 'copilot' spread across the software industry as a generic term.
Usage note
Write the generic sense lowercase; Copilot with a capital is Microsoft's (and GitHub's) product name. Compare co-intelligenceco-intelligence, n.: Ethan Mollick's term for working and thinking alongside AI as a partner — treating it like a capable but odd colleague whose strengths and blind spots you learn through experience. and centaurcentaur, n.: A human and an AI working as a team, each doing what it does best, like a chess player who consults a computer before every move. The name comes from the mythical half-human, half-horse creature. for related framings of human–AI collaboration.
Related
- GitHub CopilotGitHub Copilot, prop. n.: An AI assistant from GitHub, built into programmers' code editors, that suggests code as they type, answers questions about code and can carry out coding tasks on its own.
- AI agentAI agent, n.: An AI system that does not just answer but acts: given a goal, it decides on steps, uses tools such as a browser or code editor, checks the results and keeps going until the job is done.
- human-in-the-loophuman-in-the-loop, adj.: Describes AI systems in which a person checks, corrects or approves the machine's work at key points, rather than letting it act entirely on its own.
- co-intelligenceco-intelligence, n.: Ethan Mollick's term for working and thinking alongside AI as a partner — treating it like a capable but odd colleague whose strengths and blind spots you learn through experience.
- centaurcentaur, n.: A human and an AI working as a team, each doing what it does best, like a chess player who consults a computer before every move. The name comes from the mythical half-human, half-horse creature.
- ClippyClippy, prop. n.: Microsoft Office's animated paper-clip helper of the late 1990s, remembered for interrupting people with unwanted tips; also a nickname for an imagined AI that turns everything into paperclips.
- AI assistantAI assistant, n.: An AI program, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, that helps a person through conversation: answering questions, writing, summarizing, coding and, increasingly, taking actions on their behalf.
- AI agentAI agent, n.: An AI system that does not just answer but acts: given a goal, it decides on steps, uses tools such as a browser or code editor, checks the results and keeps going until the job is done.
Mentioned in
coding agentcoding agent, n.: An AI agent that writes and fixes software by itself: it reads a codebase, edits files, runs commands and tests, and keeps working until a feature is built or a bug is fixed., GitHub CopilotGitHub Copilot, prop. n.: An AI assistant from GitHub, built into programmers' code editors, that suggests code as they type, answers questions about code and can carry out coding tasks on its own., AI assistantAI assistant, n.: An AI program, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, that helps a person through conversation: answering questions, writing, summarizing, coding and, increasingly, taking actions on their behalf., AI-nativeAI-native, adj.: Describes a product, company or person built around AI from the start, rather than one that added AI features to older ways of working., background agentbackground agent, n.: An AI agent you hand a task to and then leave alone: it works by itself in the cloud, often for many minutes or hours, and reports back with finished work for you to review., ClippyClippy, prop. n.: Microsoft Office's animated paper-clip helper of the late 1990s, remembered for interrupting people with unwanted tips; also a nickname for an imagined AI that turns everything into paperclips., co-intelligenceco-intelligence, n.: Ethan Mollick's term for working and thinking alongside AI as a partner — treating it like a capable but odd colleague whose strengths and blind spots you learn through experience.