My Word. Microsoft's prepping Similarity Checker for retirement

Microsoft is set to discontinue the Similarity Checker feature in its Word application, effective October 3. This functionality, powered by Bing Search, compared user text to online sources, providing a similarity percentage. Users could then add citations or revise their content for increased originality. However, other Microsoft writing and editing tools, such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, remain unaffected.

Microsoft had previously acknowledged the tool's potential to help writers focus on content over mechanics. Microsoft's AI assistant is also not impacted by this change. The company clarified that Copilot is not a formal tool for similarity, plagiarism, or originality validation. The Similarity Checker's retirement comes as plagiarism detection becomes increasingly significant, with services like Turnitin incorporating AI-generated text identification.

Despite this, Microsoft noted that usage of the Similarity Checker had dwindled, prompting the decision. The feature's discontinuation aligns with Microsoft's ongoing emphasis on Copilot, though some users were surprised when the tool went offline for several days in 2023. Post the retirement, the Similarity Checker will no longer be accessible through Word's Editor experience.