copilot sign in now necessary

Monanore

I use copilot a lot, both for a quick question and serious research.
For the former, where extended features are not required, I would use the Copilot integrated into Edge, which was the only way to access it without the annoyance of signing in. Microsoft have changed this to requiring sign in. The result is that instead of using it all the time ( presumably what MS would like ) I now only use it when I have to. I use other ai's for a quick question.

Farway

I've never used it, but I have read that MS, and other AI providers, are trying hard to make some money out of it, so far seems AI is a money pit for them but no one dare stand still

Meanwhile general public remains reluctant to pay for AI

flaneurs_lobster

It's a terrible dilemma for the tech companies, they desperately want you to use the AI that they have spent billions developing (see how hard it is to escape AI that's built into Windows/365 or Google Anything) but need you to pay for the privilege. Punters have grown up with the perception that everything's free on the Internet (it isn't) and really don't want to pay extra for anything.

Currently they do this by giving you little bits of access for free (extra chatty Alexa + was foisted on me this week) but as soon as you want to do anything serious it'll cost, and not insignificant money.

OP's point about signing in, maybe I'm in a minority but I use a standard install of Windows that asked for (and got) the details of my MS account on setup, so I'm always logged in. I'll give up some privacy for the ease of access to my MS products and Onedrive storage.

Vitor

OP should install Linux Mint, fight 'the man'.

MattMattMattUK

All AIs/LLMs will require sign in soon, most already do. Not being prepared to use them signed in seems ridiculous at best.