Microsoft merges its Copilots in prelude to coming ‘Super App’

Copilot consolidation: Microsoft is merging its Copilot consumer and business apps, starting this week and running through mid-September. It’s a key step toward the company’s upcoming “Super App,” which will combine chat, coding, Cowork and agents. Consumer users lose Copilot Podcasts, Group Chat and Deep Research starting Aug. 18. Commercial users mostly get a new name and icon.

• Farewell, Mico: The Copilot news also comes with the retirement of Microsoft’s animated AI blob, Mico. The expressive assistant joins the likes of Bob, Clippy and Cortana in the great recycle bin in the sky.

Tech layoffs are disrupting Seattle home sales: Big cuts at Amazon, Microsoft and other companies in the region have helped inject fear into the market. Seattle’s drop in pending home sales — down 15.6% year-over-year in July — is the sharpest in the nation, according to a new report from Redfin, which also cited the city’s high median sale price as a factor.

A great run at Google … and bike, and yoga: Jeff Dean, the longtime Google exec who just left the tech giant after 27 years, flexed his brain on decades of computing problems. Turns out the University of Washington computer science alum was also pushing his physical limits with an impressive weekly exercise routine.

• Dean left Google to launch the AI startup Discovery Loop, and Business Insider reports that he’s in talks to raise $1 billion at a $10 billion valuation for the company.

Lev names a CTO: Jay Bartot, a co-founder of Farecast and Vhoto, is joining Lev as CTO, working with CEO T.A. McCann at the Pioneer Square Labs spinout, which uses AI to guide founders from raw idea through company formation. Lev is also launching a free guide to the startup terms founders should know.

The implications of Anthropic’s watermarking: Claude models launched on or after Aug. 2 embed an invisible mark in everything they write. It’s woven into the text itself, so it travels when you copy and paste. You didn’t opt in, you can’t see it, and you can’t turn it off. Computer scientist Oren Etzioni has a lot to say about this in his latest Etzioni on AI column.

Don’t pass on this “Hard Knocks” episode: HBO’s inside look at Seattle Seahawks training camp offers a breakdown of how QB Sam Darnold geeks out on the science of throwing a football by generating a league-best “spin rate.”

Hot Links:

• Microsoft slashed its purchase of carbon removal credits by 80% compared to the same period last year, despite rising emissions. (Bloomberg)
• Waymo, which is testing autonomous taxis in the Seattle region, is growing faster than ever, but the glitches are piling up, too. (NYT)
• Watch an Amazon delivery driver snap off an impressive salute and pivot after untangling an American flag outside a Kentucky home. (X)
• Amazon plans to use Twitch creators’ streams to train AI models by default, unless they opt out, prompting swift backlash from users. (TechCrunch)

Thanks for subscribing, and have a great day. — GeekWire editor Todd Bishop, [email protected]; reporter Kurt Schlosser, [email protected]; and reporter Lisa Stiffler, [email protected].