The rapid advancement of AI hardware means it’ll soon be tough to tell which CPUs can do what. Hoping to curb the confusion, Microsoft makes it a little bit easier with its new Copilot+ PCs. Spotting any Windows laptop with this branding lets you know it features artificial intelligence-capable components under the hood without a second glance.
Breaking down the technical, newer mobile chips feature an NPU (neural processing unit). Unlike the CPU (central processing unit) and GPU (graphical processing unit), NPUs are specifically designed to handle AI workloads, bringing them offline and away from the cloud.
Copilot+ PCs need more than just an NPU, though, as Microsoft demands a full spec. Much like its two new Surface entries, confirmed partners such as Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo all need at least a 256GB SSD and 16GB of RAM in compatible laptops. Despite Microsoft’s recent push in Arm-based Windows devices, you won’t be tied to any specific brand as both AMD and Intel will offer the same features. That said, Arm models will reportedly offer up to 15 hours of web browsing thanks to their efficiency.
Given Windows 11 will use up to 40 AI models and its Copilot assistant will soon be able to access OpenAI’s Chat GPT-4o, the tech affords a whole host of new possibilities. We’re still in the early stages, so it’s tough to tell exactly how AI could help you. The fledgling version, however, will focus on Live Captions to transcribe meetings, translation to bridge the gap between languages, and a flagship feature dubbed ‘Recall’.
Much like the name suggests, Recall leverages Microsoft’s AI Explorer to remember everything you do, from the websites you visit to the meetings you have, photos you’ve viewed, and tasks you’ve performed. Performing a Recall will bring up a timeline of everything you’ve done, presenting you with a snapshot of that specific moment. It’s not a million miles away from the Timeline in Windows 10, but far more advanced.
As a former privacy expert, I feel this comes with some concerns. Recall is a local feature and only you should have access to such thorough and sensitive data. However, your PC connects to the internet, which opens up vulnerabilities and potential exploits. Microsoft needs to be hot on the security patches to keep this in check, but it doesn’t have the best track record with functional updates lately. Then, what comes of the day Windows 11 meets its end, much like Windows 10 soon will? As always, it’s the battle between convenience and privacy, and only you can decide which should win.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Windows executive Yusuf Mehdi say the first wave of Copilot PCs will launch exclusively with Qualcomm’s Arm-based processors on June 18. Other brands will shortly follow.
