Clippy resurrected as AI assistant — project turns infamous Microsoft mascot into LLM interface

Paperclip on note paper against desktop background
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

If you’re old enough to remember when 8MB thumb drives hit the scene, you’ll probably remember Clippy, Microsoft’s digital writing assistant. Clippy lived in the bottom corner of Microsoft Office from 1996 to 2003, but now he can return to your desktop with a new life as a mouthpiece for AI, thanks to a new project from software engineer ‪Felix Rieseberg.

This odd couple of 90’s UI design and the modern-day AI craze provides potential users the ability to set up any locally installed LLM and use Clippy as its mouthpiece. Many of the most popular publicly-available LLMs will function with Clippy, with one-click installation supported for the newest from Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Qwen. Clippy’s original art and animations are joined by a Windows 98-styled chat and settings window.

On installation, Clippy silently cycles through animations while the program automatically downloads Google’s Gemma3-1B model. Once paired with an LLM, the Clippy-bot approximates the original Clippy’s tone thanks to a lengthy prompt instruction that seeks to disguise the model in use. Users are able to edit or replace this starting prompt to get their most Clippy-esque experience (or to give your Clippy more of his highly-memed snark).

Window about Clippy on desktop

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Rieseberg, creator of new Clippy, refers to the program as "a love letter and homage to the late, great Clippy," as well as Microsoft’s 90s visual aesthetic. He calls the app a piece of "software art," or, if you don’t like it, "software satire." There is certainly something to be said about the relationship between an artist and programmer designing a quirky writing aide character, and a chatbot later told to attempt to emulate that work — though the list of people waxing philosophical about Clippy likely doesn’t extend far beyond this author.

We’ve seen Clippy replacements before, but this new-and-improved paperclip doesn’t require access to a paid tier of ChatGPT, nor does it seek to modernize Clippy’s look to match Windows’ newer design sensibilities. This is the Clippy you know and love (?): a more 90’s-looking blend of old and new computing sensibilities.

The Clippy Desktop Assistant is available for download for Windows, Mac, and Linux via the project’s website, with a deeper look behind the curtain available on Github. While it's not likely to revolutionize any desktop workflows, this new Clippy stands at the ready for those happy few with one foot in the vector-graphics of the 90s... and the other in the AI-present.

Dallin Grimm
Contributing Writer

Dallin Grimm is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. He has been building and breaking computers since 2017, serving as the resident youngster at Tom's. From APUs to RGB, Dallin has a handle on all the latest tech news. 

  • Neilbob
    One of the first things I did every time I was let loose on a computer, even if it wasn't mine, was to disable Clippy.

    Wonderful halcyon times.
    Reply
  • SSGBryan
    Ok, this is funny, and I might just have to download this........
    Reply
  • Giroro
    So the question is:
    Is Microsoft aware that everybody hates both Clippy and Copilot , and are laughing (at our expense) while combining as a defiant middle finger to their customers..

    Or does Microsoft have employees so completely up their own CULTure that they legitimately think people want either of these things?

    Either way HOW IN 5 YEARS HAVE THEY STILL NOT FIGURED OUT HOW TO LET WINDOWS 11 MOVE THE TASK BAR, OR EVEN SPEED UP ANIMATIONS WITHOUT A REGISTRY HACK?
    Clearly they must have a lot of bored devs with literally nothing better to do, so how about put them to work rolling back all their covid-era design mistakes?

    Stupid, time wasting jokes are only cute when you're not sitting on an apparently-untouched backlog of critical bugs, security holes, and missing features.
    Reply
  • Kamen Rider Blade
    Giroro said:
    So the question is:
    Is Microsoft aware that everybody hates both Clippy and Copilot , and are laughing (at our expense) while combining as a defiant middle finger to their customers..

    Or does Microsoft have employees so completely up their own CULTure that they legitimately think people want either of these things?

    Either way HOW IN 5 YEARS HAVE THEY STILL NOT FIGURED OUT HOW TO LET WINDOWS 11 MOVE THE TASK BAR, OR EVEN SPEED UP ANIMATIONS WITHOUT A REGISTRY HACK?
    Clearly they must have a lot of bored devs with literally nothing better to do, so how about put them to work rolling back all their covid-era design mistakes?

    Stupid, time wasting jokes are only cute when you're not sitting on an apparently-untouched backlog of critical bugs, security holes, and missing features.
    It's mostly their PM culture that's a huge problem along with middle management. They're driven by KPI's & self aggrandizing cultures to get promotions. Instead of listening to customers.

    I say that as a Ex-MS employee who saw how the sausage was made in the inside.
    Reply
  • fireaza
    I remember an old meme (though, they weren't called "memes" back then) that purported to show a "secret" Windows settings menu. One of them was:
    "Annoy me with that sodding paperclip:"
    "Constantly"
    "When I least expect it"
    Reply