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  • Living with Cortana, Windows 10's thoughtful, flaky assistant

    by 
    Chris Velazco
    Chris Velazco
    07.30.2015

    "Hey Cortana, give me a printout of Oyster smiling." It's a joke, couched in a bit of memetic stoner humor, but I couldn't help myself. After all, Cortana -- the digital assistant baked into Windows 10 -- feels like a potent mashup of Google Now's worldliness and Siri's charm. Scheduling reminders? Check. Opening apps? Done. Proffering weather forecasts? You get where I'm going with this. I was almost surprised that she (sorry, "it") didn't humor my lousy attempt at a joke because Microsoft agonized over how to give Cortana a personality, to make it feel like more than just a talented, algorithmic guesser in the cloud. I've spent the last week of my life talking to Cortana, asking it harebrained questions along with proper requests, and you know what? The company succeeded, mostly.