Microsoft has bet everything on generative artificial intelligence (genAI) this year. Not even the shock ouster of OpenAI’s CEO for mysterious accusations of dishonesty — followed by his shock return without those accusations being fully explained — has slowed things down.
Word is that Microsoft is working on a next-generation version of Windows with an AI-powered desktop interface. But AI is already here on Windows 11 in a variety of forms. Many of these AI features were announced long ago and have slowly trickled out to Windows PCs.
This is just the start, of course. Computers with neural processing units (NPUs) are hitting the market, and widespread NPUs will make it possible to run AI models directly on consumer hardware.
It’s also worth noting that these features are often geographically restricted. For example, Microsoft still hasn’t yet made Copilot available in Europe.
For those of us in places where they’re available, though, the options are immense. And you definitely don’t have to wait for the future to start putting them to use.
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1. Copilot, the AI assistant
Copilot is the most obvious genAI feature on Windows 11, and it’s the most significant one. The Copilot sidebar offers access to a GPT 4-based large language model on your desktop, complete with built-in Bing search. You can click the “Copilot” icon on the taskbar or press Windows+C to open it.
It’s like having Bing Search or ChatGPT at your beck and call. It even now supports plugins — you can choose to disable the Search plugin from the Copilot sidebar if you don’t want it searching Bing.
Copilot is limited in how it interacts with the Windows 11 desktop. It can only do so much — but I expect future versions will integrate much more deeply with the Windows desktop experience.
Microsoft is working on tidying up the Copilot interface, too: You can now Alt+Tab to it, and soon you’ll be able to “undock” it and use it in a normal desktop window rather than as a sidebar.
Copilot is even coming to Windows 10 PCs — Microsoft is in the process of rolling out on Windows 10 PCs as we speak, though it will take several months for the gradual process to finish.
Chris Hoffman, IDG
Copilot is the most visible AI feature on Windows 11.
2. Paint Cocreator, for generating AI art
On Windows 11, Paint can now generate AI art for you. If you launch Paint, you’ll see a “Cocreator” button on the toolbar for that purpose. The system uses OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 model to generate images. It works just like asking Copilot to generate images for you — or using Bing Image Creator.
It also offers style choices like “Photorealistic” or “Pixel Art.”
Chris Hoffman, IDG
Microsoft Paint’s Cocreator feature is a late arrival, popping up for everyone…
2023-12-25 08:00:04
Source from www.computerworld.com rnrn