Microsoft to add a new key to keyboards after 30 years, and it's dedicated to AI

Three decades after adding a new key to the keyboard, in this case, the Windows key, Microsoft will do it again. This key, related to artificial intelligence, will make its first appearance starting today and throughout the CES in Las Vegas, an event that begins next week. The first keyboards with this new key will begin to ship later this month and throughout the spring.

This is the new key in Windows

This new key will be called Copilot, a key that will help users in a “more personal and intelligent computing future where AI is seamlessly woven into Windows,” according to Yusuf Mehdi, executive vice president. According to promotional images and videos, this key will be located to the right of the space bar, although the exact location will vary by region.

Mehdi confirmed that the button will start appearing on new Windows 11 PCs built by “ecosystem partners” in the days following CES, with full availability starting by the end of January, as mentioned above.

“The introduction of the Copilot key marks the first significant change to the Windows PC keyboard in nearly three decades,” Mehdi wrote in the official release. “We believe it will make it easier for people to participate in the AI transformation. The Copilot key joins the Windows key as an important part of the PC keyboard, and when pressed, it invokes the new Windows Copilot experience, bringing it into your everyday life without you even realizing it.”

Microsoft has not detailed at what specific time we will start seeing the key, although obviously, as we expected, it will vary “by market and device”, and of course, we will have to be logged in with a Microsoft account. In case we are not, Windows Search will open instead.