It looks like Microsoft will soon add AI writing assistance features to Notepad

Microsoft has made it clear that the company is all in for generative AI, putting support for such features in as many apps and services as it can. Now it looks like not even one of Microsoft's oldest apps, Notepad, will be free of the AI influence.

Noted Windows code enthusiast "PhantomOcean3" posted today on his X (formerly Twitter) account a screenshot of a new test version of the Windows 11 edition of Notepad, with the version number 11.2312.17.0. It shows a new menu selection called "Cowriter" with options like "Rewrite", "Make shorter", "Make longer", "Change tone", and "Change format".

The obvious conclusion is that Microsoft is making some changes to Notepad so it can offer some AI features made to "help" others with their writing. "PhantomOcean3" noted in a follow up post that "Cowriter" doesn't appear to work just yet. We would expect that feature to be turned on sometime in the near future for members of the Windows Insider Program to test.

In September 2023, Microsoft added an AI art generation feature to the Windows 11 version of its Paint app, called Cocreator. It's similar to Bing Image Creator in that you can type in a few text prompts for the Paint app to make something that you described. The Cocreator feature, based on OpenAI's DALL-E AI model, became available for all Windows 11 Paint users in November 2023.

Based on how Cocreator was launched for Paint, we think that Microsoft will have a waitlist for Windows Insider Program users to access the Cowriter feature in Notepad for Windows 11. However, it remains to be seen how fans of Notepad, who really enjoy its simplicity and its minimal UI, will react to Microsoft adding this AI writing feature.