Minecraft Players Will Soon Get Help from Microsoft’s Copilot AI

Since launching, Minecraft has proven to be an excellent place for developers to try out new technology. Many will remember the raytracing update that took the world by storm several years ago when it showed just how striking Minecraft can look with the right graphical package. Now, publisher Microsoft is taking the intriguing step to add its own Copilot AI to Minecraft, giving players a new way to learn how to play Minecraft on the fly. While not a feature more players were hoping to see anytime soon, Copilot’s integration into Minecraft is coming soon.

Minecraft x Copilot Announcement

Microsoft Copilot is an AI chatbot project the company has been working on for several years. The feature was first implemented under the name Bing Chat in 2023, but later that year, it was officially branded as Copilot. Similar to other chatbots like ChatGPT, Copilot uses generative artificial intelligence to answer questions users ask it.

You might be wondering what any of that has to do with Minecraft. The team’s new video revealed that Copilot is being used as a new way for players to access guide topics easily. Essentially, players can connect Minecraft and Copilot and then ask the chatbot how to do various things in Minecraft. The example in the video shows a player asking how to make a sword. Copilot can then look through the player’s inventory to see what they have and let them know the next steps they need to take to craft a sword.

Longtime Minecraft players might be questioning what this accomplishes. After all, Minecraft already has a Recipe Book that players can look through during a game session. It shows players exactly what they need to craft everything in the game. With that in mind, Copilot’s use does seem limited at this point. Microsoft might provide further use cases in future videos, but for now, it seems like the main user of this feature might be someone who needs accessibility support. We’ll have to wait and see what players do with the technology when it launches later this year.

Minecraft Update 1.21 Release Date

Late last month, developer Mojang announced that Update 1.21 is called the Tricky Trials update. Unfortunately, the team hasn’t shared an official release date for the update, but that should be coming relatively soon. Most Minecraft updates ship around June each year, and there’s been little reason to suspect 2024 will be any different. Hopefully, we hear something more official in the next few weeks.

Minecraft is available now on PlayStation, Switch, mobile, Xbox, and PC platforms.