From the course: Working with Computers and Devices

Interact with a virtual assistant

From the course: Working with Computers and Devices

Interact with a virtual assistant

- [Instructor] Another common feature found in the operating systems of modern devices is a digital assistant. You may have heard of Microsoft's Cortana, Apple's Siri, or Google's Assistant. Virtual assistants use artificial intelligence, or AI, to learn more about you so they become more helpful the more you use them. Here let's take a look at Cortana, the virtual assistant built into Microsoft Windows 10. You can interact with Cortana either through typing on your computer's keyboard or by using your voice. Bear in mind that your computer needs to have a microphone in order for you to use your voice with Cortana. To use Cortana by typing, you just click in the search box in the task bar and type a question. To you use your voice, click the Talk to Cortana button next to the search box. Let's say, for example, that I need to remember to step away from my computer at 5:00 tomorrow to cook dinner. I'll click the Talk to Cortana button and say, remind me to make dinner tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. - [Cortana] Okay, great. - [Instructor] And now when 5:00 p.m. arrives tomorrow, Cortana will notify me with my reminder. So that's just one example of what Cortana can do. In addition to giving you time-based reminders, Cortana can also track packages, give you sports scores, track flights, send emails or texts, manage your calendar, create and manage lists, and open any app on your system. If you find yourself frequently using your voice to interact with Cortana, you can apply a setting so you don't have to click the Talk to Cortana button in order to talk to Cortana. Go to the Start menu and open Settings and select Cortana. And here you can enable the Hey Cortana setting. Once you've enabled this, you can talk to Cortana at any time just by saying, hey Cortana. So I'll turn that on. And I'll close Settings. And let's try it. Hey Cortana, show me images of Basset Hounds. - [Cortana] I pulled up some images for you. - [Instructor] And there we go. I'll go ahead and close that. Or since I'm making dinner tonight, I'll ask Cortana to look up a recipe for me. Hey Cortana, find a recipe for ratatouille. - [Cortana] The first recipe is ratatouille with 3.5 out of five stars on Martha Stewart. - [Instructor] So as you can see, Cortana searched the web and found me these recipes. If any of them look good to me, I could click on them to go to the webpage to get the recipe. Probably one of the best ways to learn about Cortana's abilities is to ask it questions or to try seeing if it can perform different activities for you. Or just say, hey Cortana, what can you help me do? - [Cortana] Here's how I can help. - [Instructor] And you'll get this list of useful commands to try out to help you work more efficiently and get things done.

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