Grammarly's "expert review" feature offers to give users writing advice "inspired by" subject matter experts, including recently-deceased professors, as Wired reported on Wednesday. When I tried the feature out myself, I found some experts that came as a surprise for a different reason - one of them was my boss.
The AI-generated feedback included comments that appeared to be from The Verge's editor-in-chief, Nilay Patel, as well as editor-at-large David Pierce and senior editors Sean Hollister and Tom Warren, none of whom gave Grammarly permission to include them in the "expert reviews."
Oracle is reportedly planning thousands of layoffs as it pours billions into AI data centers, raising investor concerns over costs and long-term cash flow.
The US Customs and Border Protection says it currently can't comply with an order to process billions of dollars in refunds stemming from tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump. In a filing on Friday, CBP executive director Brandon Lord says the agency's digital import processing system is "not well suited to a task of this scale," as reported earlier by CNBC.
The CBP's admission comes after the Supreme Court struck down the tariffs imposed by Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) last month. This week, the International Trade Court ruled that importers impacted by the tariffs are entitled to refunds with i …
In a bid to make Copilot more like a helpful “personal” assistant that knows everything about you, Microsoft gave its AI the ability to sync your passwords, but only if you choose to.
The new update to the Copilot app is currently rolling out gradually to Windows Insiders in all channels, but of course, availability may vary. The feature is available on the Copilot app version 1.25121.xx.x+ higher.
Checking Copilot version. (This is not the newest version)
But why let Copilot sync your passwords? Well, in a recent blog post, Microsoft introduced a “new way to get things done in the Copilot App on Windows”. When the update reaches you, any link you open in the Copilot app will stop opening in your default browser and will instead open in a sidepane next to the conversation, essentially turning Copilot into a web browser.
While Microsoft says this new change is to help you avoid losing context, since going back and forth between Copilot and your browser is a chore, this will also give Microsoft’s AI assistant the capability to access the context of each tab you open in that particular conversation. Note that Copilot will not be able to access such context unless you give it explicit permission.
View web content in a sidepane next to your conversation without leaving the Copilot app. Source: Microsoft
Having browser windows open in Copilot means that you would have to sign in again to websites and their services, and nobody likes it, which could be why Microsoft added the ability to sync passwords and form data in the Copilot app. Most importantly, this feature also requires you to enable it manually.
Copilot app can now sync passwords just like Microsoft Edge
Password syncing is easily one of the most helpful features in the Edge browser. I have Edge as the default browser on both my Windows PC and my Android phone. A couple of years ago, I used Chrome, like everyone else, and all passwords were synced with Google. Then, Microsoft added the ability to bring data from Google to Edge, and that’s when Edge became my password manager.
Microsoft Edge asking to bring over your passwords
Of course, it syncs easily with my Android phone too, so the passwords are, in fact, stored somewhere on Microsoft’s servers via my Microsoft account. For someone like me, the idea of allowing Copilot to sync passwords and form data isn’t hard to pass by.
It’s easy to be critical of a feature that permits AI to sync sensitive information like passwords, but note that it exists because the Copilot app is also getting a mini browser.
So, logically, if you are chatting with Copilot, and it gives you a link to a site that you have already signed into, and if you choose to open the link in Copilot’s side pane, it’s also possible that you want to log in to that site without having to enter your credentials every time. This is the feature gap that the new Copilot update aims to solve.
Links in Copilot opens in default browser until now
Certainly, there are users who wouldn’t want any of this, and fortunately, allowing Copilot to access the context of the tabs you open in the app and allowing it to sync your passwords and form data, like addresses and usernames are completely optional.
Unfortunately, you cannot turn off the mini browser feature, and going forward, all links you click in the Copilot app will open in Copilot itself, unless Microsoft decides to go back with this feature, or better, give us a toggle to turn it on or off.
Password sync and mini browser window are unique to Copilot
I use Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot. The first three are undoubtedly the better language models. But as of now, none of them are built to work standalone. You’ll have to switch between different browser tabs and applications. Of course, I’m not talking about Agentic AI models here.
Copilot’s ability to be useful without leaving the app is unique, and features like sync password, built-in browser for opening links, and the ability to access tab context without having to prompt every time are all unavailable in the other popular AIs, including Copilot’s ability to access Google contacts.
Copilot asking to connect to Google Contacts
It’s apparent that Copilot is a web wrapper in itself, and getting a mini browser and password syncing doesn’t mean that it is trying to replace a browser, although Edge and Copilot are now starting to look alike.
Also, syncing your passwords in the Copilot app likely happens through your Microsoft account, and in that case, all the existing passwords you have in Microsoft Edge, including the ones from your Google Account, can also be synced with Copilot. So, even if you uninstall Copilot, any new passwords you create in the AI’s mini-browser tabs won’t be lost.
In the best-case scenario, keeping all the Copilot negativity aside, you could do everything you do on your browser right in Copilot, with an extra help from the AI, as it can understand context too. Add the upcoming Copilot Tasks to the mix, and we could be looking at an incredible Agentic AI in the works for Windows.
Copilot Tasks demo
As of writing, sync password to Copilot is not available on my PC. To check if you have it, click your profile icon in the Copilot app, select About, and see if the version number is 146.0.3856.39 and higher.
darwinmac writes: Mozilla is working on a huge redesign for its Firefox browser, codenamed "Nova," which will bring pastel gradients, a refreshed new tab page, floating "island" UI elements, and more. "From the mockups, it appears Mozilla took some inspiration from Googles Material You (or at least, the dynamic color extraction part of it) because the browser color accent appears influenced by the wallpaper setting," reports Neowin. "Choosing a mint-green desktop background automatically shifts the top navigation bars to match that exact shade."
Mozilla has a habit of redesigning Firefox every few years. Before "Nova," there was the "Proton" redesign in 2021, the "Photon" redesign in 2017, and the "Australis" redesign in 2014. Nova is still in early development, so it might take a year or two before it appears in an official stable Firefox release. Neowin adds: "Not every redesign project ends well for Mozilla, though. You might remember 2012's Firefox Metro, an ambitious attempt to build a custom browser for Windows 8s touch-first interface. The team built it to operate both as a traditional desktop application and as a touch-optimized Metro app. The whole thing was scrapped in 2014 after two years in development due to a dismally low user adoption rate (a preview version of the software had been released a year earlier on the Aurora channel)."
Bill Gates-backed TerraPower won the first US reactor construction grant in nearly a decade, as AI-driven data center demand is reviving interest in nuclear power.
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