Unlocking AI Power in Microsoft Edge - The Mark Cuban Podcast

Summary of "Unlocking AI Power in Microsoft Edge"

Podcast: The Mark Cuban Podcast
Host: The Mark Cuban Podcast
Guest: John Doe
Episode Release Date: August 7, 2025

Introduction

In the episode titled "Unlocking AI Power in Microsoft Edge," host Mark Cuban dives deep into the latest advancements in AI integration within web browsers, focusing specifically on Microsoft's new AI-powered features in the Edge browser. The guest, John Doe, provides an in-depth analysis of these features, comparing them with existing AI browsers and exploring their practical applications and potential improvements.

Microsoft Edge's AI-Powered Copilot

John Doe begins the discussion by introducing Microsoft's new AI feature embedded within the Edge browser, aptly named Copilot Mode. This AI agent is designed to assist users by answering questions and performing tasks directly within the browser environment.

John Doe [02:15]: "Inside their Edge browser, they have a Copilot mode, which is an AI that you can talk to and ask it questions and can help you do things."

Comparison with Other AI Browsers

Doe compares Copilot Mode to other AI-enhanced browsers like Perplexity's Comet and the upcoming AI features from ChatGPT and Google. He highlights Microsoft's strategic move to incorporate AI early to stay competitive in the rapidly evolving AI browser landscape.

John Doe [03:45]: "Microsoft doesn't want to get left behind. When you have companies like Perplexity coming out with a pretty decent tool, the browsers that are already on a lot of people's computers are probably wanting to get a jumpstart on having these features."

Features and Functionality

Doe elaborates on the primary functionalities of Copilot Mode, which include:

Integrated Search and Chat: Users can search, chat, and navigate the web with the assistance of Copilot directly from the browser's tab page.
Contextual Assistance: When visiting specific webpages, such as a recipe site, Copilot can extract and present relevant information without the need to scroll through the entire page.

John Doe [05:10]: "If you click on a recipe page, you can go to the copilot and say just tell me what the recipe is and it will just give it to you right there."

Practical Use Cases

While Doe appreciates some of the innovative use cases presented by Microsoft, he expresses skepticism about others, citing common examples like booking flights or finding recipes as superficial.

John Doe [01:20]: "Microsoft gave me a heads up on the story like a week ago. So I've been waiting for their launch to be able to kind of talk about this. And I do think that there are some really interesting use cases that I'm not seeing from a lot of other people."

He suggests more meaningful applications, such as using Copilot for comprehensive research tasks. For instance, aggregating information across multiple tabs to create comparative analyses or spreadsheets.

John Doe [06:30]: "You could just tell it like, hey, go do the research, look at all my tabs, make a spreadsheet, you know, compare everything side by side."

Limitations and Areas for Improvement

Doe points out several areas where Copilot Mode currently falls short:

Experimental Nature: Microsoft labels Copilot as an experimental feature, indicating it's still in the testing phase and may not be fully reliable.
User Experience: The necessity for back-and-forth interactions between the user and Copilot can hinder efficiency, making some tasks slower than manual execution.
Privacy Concerns: The opt-in nature of Copilot's access to browsing data raises concerns about privacy and user control.

John Doe [04:50]: "I do not like it when all of a sudden your browser is recording everything you're doing or looking at everything you're doing because they did an update and you never opted out of it."

Unique Advantages of Copilot Mode

Despite the criticisms, Doe highlights unique advantages that set Copilot Mode apart from other AI browsers:

Voice Input Integration: The inclusion of a prominent voice input feature enhances usability, especially for those who prefer or require voice interactions.
Browser-Specific AI Use Cases: Copilot's ability to interact with multiple open tabs to perform tasks like consolidating research data or generating reports offers a distinct advantage over competitors.

John Doe [07:00]: "You can use it as a research companion, which you've heard from a lot of tools, but you can actually tell it to look at all of the tabs that you have open on your browser."

Potential Future Developments

Looking ahead, Doe expresses optimism about the future enhancements Microsoft could implement in Copilot Mode. These include more seamless task automation and better integration of user data to facilitate complex operations without constant user intervention.

John Doe [08:15]: "It's going to be pretty interesting if you don't have a lot of mobility. So that's interesting."

Conclusion

John Doe concludes the discussion by reiterating his belief in the potential of AI-powered browsers like Microsoft Edge's Copilot Mode. While acknowledging its current limitations, he remains hopeful that ongoing improvements will enhance its utility and user experience.

John Doe [09:30]: "I think that there's a lot of value and especially in the ability to look at a whole bunch of different tabs."

He encourages listeners to try out the features upon release and stay tuned for future developments in AI browser technology.

Key Takeaways

Microsoft Edge's Copilot Mode introduces AI-powered assistance directly into the browser, enabling enhanced search, chat, and task automation.
Comparative Edge: Microsoft's proactive integration aims to keep pace with emerging AI browsers like Perplexity and forthcoming features from ChatGPT and Google.
Practical Applications: While some functionalities may seem redundant, unique use cases like multi-tab research consolidation present significant value.
Areas for Improvement: Current limitations include its experimental status, potential privacy concerns, and the efficiency of user interactions.
Future Prospects: Enhanced automation and better user data integration could position Copilot Mode as a leading AI browser tool.

Notable Quotes

John Doe [02:15]: "Inside their Edge browser, they have a Copilot mode, which is an AI that you can talk to and ask it questions and can help you do things."
John Doe [04:50]: "I do not like it when all of a sudden your browser is recording everything you're doing or looking at everything you're doing because they did an update and you never opted out of it."
John Doe [07:00]: "You can use it as a research companion, which you've heard from a lot of tools, but you can actually tell it to look at all of the tabs that you have open on your browser."

Final Thoughts

For listeners interested in the intersection of AI and web browsing, this episode provides valuable insights into Microsoft's strategic initiatives with Edge's Copilot Mode. John Doe's balanced perspective highlights both the promising features and the challenges that lie ahead, making it a must-listen for tech enthusiasts and professionals alike.

If you found this summary helpful and want to explore more AI tools discussed in the podcast, consider checking out AI Box AI—a platform mentioned by John Doe for experimenting with various AI models.

Transcript

John Doe (0:00)

Microsoft Edge has just launched an AI browser embedded into it. This is really interesting. So today on the podcast I want to be breaking down how useful this new quote unquote AI agent built into Microsoft Edges. Is this a copy of other AI browsers that we've seen, like the one like Comet from Perplexity? Is this new? Basically. What is it able to do? Microsoft gave me a heads up on the story like a week ago. So I've been waiting for their launch to be able to kind of talk about this. And I do think that there are some really interesting use cases that I'm not seeing from a lot of other people. People. And then there's also some things that I think they have room to improve on. So I'll be getting into all of that today. But before I do, I wanted to mention if you want to try any of the AI models that I talk about on this platform on my podcast, I love for you to go check out AI Box AI. It's currently in beta, but it is my AI playground platform and a lot of exciting things coming in the future. But basically right now you can Access the top 40 AI models all in one place and chat them all in one thread. So if you're working on a document for work and you, you use ChatGPT to help you come up with some sort of data analysis and then you're like, you know what, the tone on this document sounds a little too robotic. So you can go switch to Claude and say, hey, you know, reformat this to have a better tone. Because I find Claude has is so much better at tone and maybe you need to do some more in depth analysis or you need to go look at some real world tweets. You can use something like Grok. There's all sorts of different tools that have different strengths and weaknesses. So go check out the platform and see, you know, what is currently available over there. Because we're adding new models all the time on AI Box AI, but it's 20 bucks a month. You get access to image, audio and text models and you can try them all on one platform without having to add subscriptions to everything. So go check it out. There's a link in the description. All right, let's get into what's going on with Microsoft Edge. Basically, the thing that I think is really interesting here is. Okay, well first of all, I gotta say I apologize because when they give their examples of what you can use this for, they of course use the infamous how it can help you book flights and how it can help you find recipes. These are my two least favorite examples of all time. Because every single AI company, whenever they come with a new demo, use these. And I think that they're just like so brutally regurgitated feeling. But in any case, I'll talk about some actually very useful use cases that I think this is able to do. But I might use some of their examples to illustrate some functionality. Basically, inside of, inside of their Edge browser they have a Copilot mode, which is an AI that you can talk to and ask it questions and can help you do things. Now we know that ChatGPT and OpenAI right now are working on their own browser. They've just added agents into ChatGPT in addition to kind of having their operator and Google's working on some things in this regard. We have Perplexity that just launched, quote unquote, the first AI browser, which is actually pretty cool, kind of agentic. It can accomplish tasks for you. So it feels like this is the way the industry. Microsoft definitely doesn't want to get left behind. When you have companies like Perplexity coming out with like a brand new browser that never existed to have this, you know, the, the browsers that are already on a lot of people's computers are probably wanting to get a jumpstart on having these features. They don't get replaced faster. Microsoft says that basically Copilot mode is still considered an experimental feature. Right? So if everybody hates that, they could say, okay, we're getting rid of it. I don't think that'll happen, but I think they're basically, basically what's happening in my opinion is we have Perplexity that came out with a pretty decent tool and OpenAI that's working on tool. Microsoft doesn't want everyone to front run them. All of these little startups to basically come up with a tool faster than Microsoft, the big epic company could. And, and so they're like, they're, they're basically acting like a startup by releasing a tool that's quote unquote an experimental tool. It doesn't work perfectly. You can try it now, but they want to seem cool and hip and like, look, we're making innovative stuff, not just copying everybody in six months when they feel like the browser's a little bit better. It's also opt in by default, which I know some people will hate. Actually, personally I hate that. I hate it once when tech companies make anything opt in by default. It's like you could have a little pop up that says would you like to use this? And you Say click yes. But I do not like it when all of a sudden your browser is recording everything you're doing or looking at everything you're doing because they did an update and you never opted out of it. Oh my gosh. So annoying. But in any case, I do think there's some interesting things. Of course PC or Mac users can get access to this. It's free currently. They may add some sort of payment in the future, but currently it's free. So there's a few main parts of this. Once you enable it, Edge users are going to be are basically going to get to have a tab page where they can search, chat and navigate the web with Copilot's assistance. When you visit a specific webpage, you can turn. You can go to Copilot and ask for more help. So their example is like if you go to a cooking recipe and you know the top of every recipe, there's like the person's life story and you got to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. Cause they're trying to do Google SEO and that's where you actually find the recipe. Well, if you click on a recipe page, you can go to the copilot and say just tell me what the recipe is and it will just give it to you right there. How much faster that is than scrolling to the bottom of the page, I'm not sure personally. I have the Logitech not sponsored, but I have the Logitech MX Master 3 mouse which is amazing. And it has a metal scroll wheel with a bearing in it that I can flick and get to the bottom of any webpage in about one second. So is it going to be any faster? This is. And the reason I bring this up is because this is literally one of their examples. But so is it going to be any faster for me to go and ask it what the actual recipe is? I don't know, but maybe, maybe if it's not at the bottom of the webpage and it's like in the middle somewhere and they have stuff at the bottom. Maybe if it's hard to find on the website you could get it to do it faster. I don't know that one. I'm not sure if it's a good use case. And I will come up with some good use cases by the way, but that one I am, I'm not giving them a full pass for that one. Another thing that they said is that it can handle a bunch of different tasks on behalf. It can book appointments, it can create shopping lists, it can it can draft content. Again, everything can draft content. Just come up with unique use cases. Microsoft, I beg you. They're saying that this is a quote unquote, agentic use of the web. It's a big jump. We have a lot of different AI browsers right now, so it's going to be interesting. One thing that I do think is, like, genuinely valuable is that they have allowed a voice input mode, which typically, if I'm like, on a desktop, for example, I don't use the voice input or think about using it a lot. But if it's a prominent thing, I think it could be very useful. Half the time, like, if I'm trying to do something and I need, like, voice, I'll just pull up my phone and I'm using the exact same app that I'm like, on my desktop, but I just grab it on my phone and I'm like, voice to texting, talking to it. Um, but you probably could just do it on the desktop now. So I do think that that's good to be able to kind of go back and forth from your phone to your computer, not have so much friction between the two. Um, this is going to be pretty interesting if you don't have a lot of mobility. So that's interesting. Microsoft says that users are going to be able to give copilot additional context needed for a lot of tasks like your login credentials or your web history to manage more advanced stuff like booking. But right now it's a little bit more manual, right? So you'd be like, just find me the best flight. And it'd like, pull it up and it's like, here's the best flight. And you'd be like, okay, now, like, book it. And it would like, go there and be like, okay, now enter in your, like, you know, your login credentials or your credit card or like, whatever. So it's like back and forth. Which at that point, like, sometimes I wonder if it's just faster to do it yourself. I would. I love agents and I love the concept of agents. If they can do everything for you, I don't love them as much if it's like back and forth. Because I've just. ChatGPT's operator drives me crazy if I tell it to do something and then it's like asking me like, okay, I did the first step. Do you want me to continue? And I'm like, yes, I want you to continue do the whole task. I'm not sitting here to, like, I don't want to be here babysitting you. Uh, so in any case, I think if it falls into that trap, it's less useful. And right now it feels like it's more in that trap. So what is interesting, and this is the good use case of copilot, I'm done tearing them up and saying it's useless. This is a good use case and I think this is interesting. Some people might think it's creepy, but I do think it's interesting. Basically, you can use it as a research companion, which you've heard from a lot of tools, but you can actually tell it to look at all of the tabs that you have open on your browser. Okay. Finally, a browser specific useful AI use case that no one else is doing. So if I'm doing research and I go, I'm like, let's say I'm trying to buy like a new barbecue or something. I go on Amazon and I open up like seven different tabs of like, different top barbecue brands, and I'm like switching between them to see what the dimensions of everything are, to see what the cost of everything is. I think it'd be amazing if you could just tell it like, hey, go do the research, look at all of my tabs. Make a spreadsheet, you know, compare everything side by side, sort everything by whatever barbecue is like the cheapest, but also the biggest. Like, you can do a whole bunch of really cool things like that, where it's looking at all your tabs. You put, you go find all the data, or maybe you tell it to go research it and open a bunch of tabs, but it's like looking at all your tabs. I think that's a very useful thing. That's gonna be really interesting in the future. It's going to prompt people to pick up where they left off on a project. So if you're doing a bunch of research, say, looking at barbecues, then you leave, your computer gets shut down, you fire it back up, it's like, hey, you want to continue on your barbecue project research? And you could be like, nah, forget it. I don't want to do my barbecue anymore. Is that annoying or is it useful? I don't know. Some people find it both ways. But it will also recommend next steps to take on those kind of projects. So I think this is interesting right now. Microsoft obviously is stressing that it's only going to be able to access your browsing content when you choose to allow it. It's going to be very transparent to the end user with some visual cues. They said the idea that you can now toggle on or off a feature that's available to view and listen to you while you search is going to be, you know, totally up to you. Some people won't like it. Some people will. I think it's. I think that there's a lot of value and especially in the ability to look at a whole bunch of different tabs. So you have a project where you're looking at a whole bunch of different tabs. You're planning your wedding or something, and you have tabs on all the different things that you're planning on doing and you get it to, like, consolidate or make a report. I think that's very interesting and useful, so I'll be excited to try that out when it launches. Hey, if you learned anything new about the new Microsoft Edge browser, or if this podcast was interesting, make sure to leave us a rating and review. Uh, you can watch the videos if you're listening only on Apple, you can watch all the videos on Spotify or YouTube. There's a link to the YouTube video for this in the description. As always, thank you so much for tuning in. Make sure you go check out AI box AI if you want to try all the top AI models on one platform and I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day.