Microsoft is going all-in on integrating artificial intelligence across its products and services, with a major focus on making AI assistants like Copilot a seamless part of the Windows experience.
At their Build developer conference, the company unveiled ambitious plans to deeply embed generative AI capabilities into the core Windows operating system.
Introducing a New Category: “Copilot+” AI-Enhanced PCs
Today, Microsoft introduced the world to a new category of Windows PCs designed for AI – Copilot+ PCs. These are touted as the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever built, leveraging powerful new silicon capable of an incredible 40+ TOPS (trillion operations per second) for AI workloads.
With all-day battery life, access to advanced AI models, and the ability to run AI tasks locally without cloud connectivity, Copilot+ PCs promise to enable unique experiences not possible on regular computers.
Copilot Gets Seriously Upgraded AI Capabilities
- Recall: This innovative feature gives users an AI-powered “photographic memory” by logging and indexing virtually everything they do on their PC – websites visited, documents, emails, chat conversations and more. Recall then allows users to easily find this information by using natural language queries and contextual cues they remember.
The logged data is processed and stored entirely on-device using a personal semantic index, ensuring privacy. Users have granular controls to filter out apps or timeframes they don’t want tracked, pause Recall temporarily, or delete individual snapshots and ranges.
- Cocreator: Built into Windows apps like Photos and Paint, Cocreator enables near real-time AI image generation and editing using powerful diffusion models running locally on the NPU. Users can combine text prompts and ink strokes to iteratively generate and refine artwork with a creative “slider” to adjust styles.
- Restyle Photos: The Photos app gets an AI-powered “Restyle” feature to reimagine personal photos by applying preset visual styles like Cyberpunk or claymation that can change backgrounds, foregrounds or the full image.
- Live Captions with Translation: Any audio passing through the PC, whether live or pre-recorded across any app, can have automated live captions generated in over 40 languages and translated to English subtitles – all processed locally on the NPU for privacy.
The first Copilot+ PCs from Microsoft’s own Surface lineup as well as partners like Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung will hit the market starting June 18, with pre-orders open today. These premium AI-accelerated laptops and 2-in-1s will start at $999.
Specialized AI Chips at the Core
At the heart of the Copilot+ PC experience are powerful new processors designed specifically to accelerate AI workloads directly on the device.
Microsoft has introduced a new system architecture that tightly integrates the CPU, GPU, and a dedicated high-performance Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to unlock unprecedented AI capabilities.
Qualcomm takes the lead with its premium Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips powering the first wave of Copilot+ laptops and 2-in-1s. These Arm-based system-on-chips pack potent AI muscle:
- Up to 45 TOPS (trillion operations per second) of NPU performance
- Custom Oryon CPU cores for best-in-class performance per watt
- Integrated Adreno GPU for responsive graphics
According to Microsoft, this allows Copilot+ PCs to achieve up to 20x higher AI throughput compared to typical laptops, while being up to 100x more power efficient for AI inferencing workloads.
Benchmarks show the new chips enabling up to 58% faster sustained multi-threaded performance than Apple’s M1-powered MacBook Air, while delivering over 20 hours of video playback on a single charge.
Unshackling AI from the Cloud
By offloading AI processing to these optimized NPUs, Copilot+ can run advanced experiences like automated captioning, image generation, and voice/video effects entirely on the local device withoutCloud connectivity.
This eliminates previous constraints around latency, data costs, and privacy concerns associated with routing AI workloads through remote data centers.
While cloud-based large language models will still be leveraged when needed, Microsoft envisions a hybrid approach where AI seamlessly flows between the Cloud and the locally optimized silicon.
Leveraging the Cloud-Device AI Symbiosis
While the NPUs allow advanced AI models to run locally, Microsoft envisions a symbiotic relationship where Copilot+ PCs leverage both on-device and cloud-based models for different capabilities.
The PCs will have access to Microsoft’s world-class “small language models” (SLMs) for experiences like Recall’s indexing. But they will also connect to large cloud-based models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 to power more advanced conversational AI through the Copilot assistant.
Introducing New Windows AI Features
Beyond the flagship Recall and Cocreator experiences, Copilot+ PCs will integrate AI across the core Windows UI and first-party apps:
- AI image styling and background removal in the Photos app
- Voice focus, smart framing and artistic effects for video calls
- Always-available Copilot assistant with GPT-4 integration
- Privacy controls to manage which activities are logged by Recall
Microsoft is positioning Copilot+ as an AI platform open to developers, with partners like Adobe, Davinci Resolve, CapCut and others optimizing their apps to leverage the NPU acceleration.
The company says 87% of the most widely used apps now have Arm native versions optimized for these Windows AI PCs. A new “Prism” emulator will also allow x86 apps to run smoothly.
Countering Moves by Google, Apple in Generative AI Race
This bold move represents Microsoft’s counterattack against rivals like Google and Apple that recently showcased their own generative AI innovations.
While Google updated search with AI helpers and Apple is expected to discuss its AI strategy at WWDC, Microsoft is aiming to establish an early lead by making the PC itself a deeply AI-optimized platform for both consumer and enterprise use cases.
The Copilot+ initiative is seen as crucial for reviving adoption of Windows on Arm and combating Apple’s momentum with its powerful and efficient M-series chips.
Yusuf Mehdi, head of consumer marketing, predicts that 50 million AI PCs will be sold over the next year, potentially revitalizing a market that saw a 15% decline in global PC shipments last year according to Gartner. The expectation is that these AI capabilities will be a significant incentive for consumers to upgrade their PCs.
The market has responded positively to these developments, with Microsoft shares closing up 1.2% at $425.34, just shy of their record high. Qualcomm also saw a 2% increase to $197.76, marking a record close. Analysts predict that by 2026, Arm-based systems could account for 14% of all Windows PC shipments, a significant increase from their current negligible share
By making AI a key differentiator with hardware-software integration, Microsoft hopes to finally make Arm laptops mainstream after years of struggling with app compatibility issues.
If successful, it could reshape the PC landscape and cement Microsoft’s lead in the nascent but rapidly evolving AI computing arena across client and cloud.