Microsoft is introducing an AI tool to take the pain out of creating websites

Image Credit: TechCrunch

Microsoft wants to take the pain out of designing web pages. AI is its solution.

Today marks the launch of Copilot in Power Pages, an AI-powered assistant for Power Pages, Microsoft’s low-code business website creation tool, in preview for US customers. Given instructions, Copilot can create text, forms, chatbots, and web page layouts, as well as create and edit image and site design themes.

To create a form, for example, users can simply describe the form they need and Copilot will create it and automatically create the necessary back-end database tables. Those tables can be edited, added or removed using natural language within Copilot.

“As a developer, you describe what you need in natural language and use Copilot suggestions to design web pages, create content, and create complex business data forms,” ​​Sankia Singh, VP of Microsoft PowerPages, told TechCrunch in an email. Interview. “You no longer have to start from a blank slate.”

Building a website with AI isn’t a novel idea — at least not today. Tools like Jasper can handle copy, images, layouts, and more, while generators like Mixo can create basic splash pages with a little explanation.

But Singh describes GoPilot at PowerPages as more versatile than competing solutions out there. Spam sites.

“Power Pages now allows you to seamlessly move from no code (describing the site through natural language) to low code (editing website designs and layouts using Design Studio) to pro code (creating advanced customization with familiar web frameworks),” he said. said. “For that power Pages, creating copilot experiences power Pages is revolutionary because enabling an AI assistant to build commercial data center platforms using natural language has never been done before.

Image Credit: Microsoft

Of course, depending on the domain and use case, adding generative AI to the mix can be a risky proposition. AI can be induced to create toxic content, even if it wasn’t originally intended. And it can go off the rails if not monitored closely.

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Copilot in Power Pages, powered by OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 model, are “guardians,” says Singh.

“We take user instructions from the website maker to Copilot, get recommendations from a large language model, and do a lot of processing like offensive content filtering before showing the recommendations to the maker,” Singh said. “If CoPilot’s recommendations are inappropriate or inappropriate, producers can easily report the AI-generated output with a thumbs-down gesture in our experience and provide additional feedback.”

What about the aforementioned chatbot powered by GPT-3.5 that PowerPages users can now plug into their websites? According to Singh, it is built with security, including a whitelist of URLs it will look at to get responses.

“The main thing to note is power Pages Copilot is not an ‘automated’ AI-pilot that creates websites, but an ‘AI assistant’ for a human website builder – hence the name Copilot – where the builder can ask for recommendations on how to create various elements centered around business data. platform,” he added. “A policy we have is to give producers ‘total control’, where the producer is always in control if they want to use the copilot recommendation or further modify or reject it.”