Remember Clippy? The assistant found in Microsoft Office in the late 90s and early 2000s is making a return, albeit unofficially, with a new app for Windows 11. The new Clippy app brings the idea of a smart assistant to the modern era thanks to the power of AI, specifically leveraging OpenAI's GPT 3.5 large language model.

This new Clippy is developed by Firecube Studios, a developer that's made a few other Windows 11 apps that make great use of the design technologies available. Clippy follows in those footsteps, but is obviously a throwback to the old days of using Microsoft Office on Windows XP. In terms of features, it essentially brings ChatGPT directly to your desktop, making it accessible with a simple mouse click.

You can ask Clippy about basically anything, whether it's related to Windows or not. If you need help changing a Windows setting, you can ask Clippy how to do it, and it will tell you. It's somewhat akin to the official Windows Copilot, though that implementation will be more tightly integrated with Windows itself. You can also ask Clippy about things unrelated to Windows, just like you would ChatGPT. For example, you can ask it why there are multiple train stations called Penn Station in the United States — something I found myself wondering about during my recent trip there. Clippy will do its best to answer these questions, and they can be unique each time you ask.

The current version of Clippy requires you to provide your own OpenAI API key, but the final version should change that and make it easier to set up. In the app's settings, you can also change how many API tokens can be used for each question you ask, which changes the length of the responses you get. While it looks like Clippy for now, the developer also plans to bring back other classic Microsoft characters like Bob or Clippy with a more classic design.

If you'd like to have quicker access to ChatGPT-like features and you want a dose of nostalgia to go with it, you can download the Clippy app from the Microsoft Store.