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Didn't Even Make It a Year: Microsoft's AI Mascot Mico Booted from Voice Feature

Mico, the anthropomorphic AI character Microsoft launched just last October, has now been pulled from Copilot's voice chat interface and reassigned to the Learn Live tutoring section. The official explanation reads like the kind of euphemism you'd use to explain sending the family dog off to live on a farm.

Didn't Even Make It a Year: Microsoft's AI Mascot Mico Booted from Voice Feature

An AI mascot that isn't even a year old is going through the corporate version of getting "sent off to live on a farm."

Back in October 2025, Microsoft introduced Mico, a shapeless little orange blob, for Copilot's voice chat feature — giving users a face to look at while talking to the AI. Less than a year later, Microsoft has decided to pull Mico out of Copilot's voice section entirely, relocating it to the Learn Live tutoring hub, where it'll keep going as a "tutor" character.

The official support page puts it this way: "Mico has helped us learn about warmth, expression, and how people want to talk with AI — and those learnings are shaping the future of Copilot." It then adds that Learn is actually where the character has the most room to grow, since teaching scenarios give Mico more material to react to and teach with. Reading it feels a lot like the way parents explain to a kid that the family dog has gone to live on a farm.

The page also repeatedly stresses that users can still interact with Copilot using voice — Mico just won't be showing up in that setting anymore. And if you'd customized your own Mico into something extra cute, take note: those voice-mode personalization settings won't carry over to Learn Live, so you'll need to set it all up again from scratch.

This story was first reported by Engadget's Anna Washenko, who noted that the development was originally spotted by The Verge.

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