REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft showed new integrations between its Copilot artificial intelligence technologies and its Windows PC operating system, and previewed a new class of personal computers designed to further build AI capabilities into its longtime software platform.
“We believe AI will be distributed,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said at a media event here Monday morning in advance of the company’s Build developer conference in Seattle this week. “The richest AI experiences will harness the power of the cloud and the edge working together in concert.”
Microsoft is calling the initiative “Copilot + PC,” leveraging advanced neural processing units (NPUs) that are starting to be incorporated into computers. Microsoft says the systems will be able to work with AI models running locally at more than 40 trillion operations per second.
As a starting point, the integrations let the AI system observe what users are doing on their computers to provide insights and recall information as part of Copilot interactions.
Chipmakers Intel, Qualcomm, and AMD are partnering with Microsoft and other computer and device makers on the new machines.
Microsoft introduced new versions of its Surface Laptop and Surface Pro devices that incorporate the new AI technologies and processors as part of the Copilot + PC announcement. The company showed a series of benchmarks claiming better performance than Apple computers on a variety of fronts.
The move leverages Microsoft’s traditional strength in PC operating systems, software, and services, in contrast with the company’s initial attempt to use its Copilot technology to challenge Google in internet search last year. Microsoft is looking to take advantage of interest from end users to fuel demand for its Azure cloud platform in competition with Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services.
Some of the capabilities are similar to those shown by Microsoft partner OpenAI last week. Microsoft’s direct integration of the AI features into Windows may be part of the reason that OpenAI is releasing its new ChatGPT desktop app on Apple Mac computers despite working closely with Microsoft on AI technologies.
OpenAI’s GPT-4o AI model will be available as part of Microsoft Copilot, the company said.
Microsoft says sensitive personal data will be kept local and secure on the user’s device, including the index for a new feature called “Recall” that helps users find and access content. The company says the Copilot + PCs will be secured by default using its Pluton security chip architecture.
The company has come under intense pressure to reform its security practices after a series of high-profile breaches. Microsoft recently unveiled new security protocols and benchmarks for executive compensation tied to security progress. Google on Monday released a security white paper and offer to Microsoft customers in an effort to take advantage of the Redmond company’s security vulnerabilities.
