Blow the horn for AI PCs! Microsoft keeps increasing the "Copilot content" in Windows

Will 2024 be the year of AI PCs? At least Microsoft is working towards that direction.

This week, Microsoft has started testing a "new experience" for Copilot within Microsoft. This includes a Copilot icon in the taskbar that automatically appears when users copy text or images.

Media outlets have tested the upgraded Copilot in the latest Microsoft 11 Canary version and found that it performs well in text-related operations, summarizing any content that is copied. Although the icon also animates when copying images, this feature is not yet fully developed. Currently, if you drag and drop an image onto the Copilot icon in the taskbar and then enter a prompt, Copilot can tell you what content is in the image and even help you edit it in the future.

In addition to the changes to Copilot, Microsoft has also announced that Microsoft Notepad will soon receive AI integration from Copilot. After selecting text, users can right-click and choose "Explain with Copilot," and the AI will be able to interpret the text, code, or log files.

In recent months, Microsoft has gradually added more and more AI features to Microsoft 11, including the highly anticipated integration of Copilot. Microsoft hopes that 2024 will be the "year of AI PCs" and has prepared for major feature updates by adding a dedicated Copilot key on the keyboard.

Intel, Qualcomm, and other companies have previously stated that the 2024 Microsoft updates will focus on artificial intelligence, but Microsoft has not officially confirmed its plans. Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Microsoft, stated in a recent media interview:

The uniqueness of Copilot within the Microsoft ecosystem is that it understands the environment you're in... it understands the page, so it can do richer things.

In the latest testing version of Microsoft 11, Copilot's ability to understand context has been enhanced, and Microsoft also plans to further strengthen Copilot's capabilities by leveraging the NPU chips that have recently started appearing in Microsoft laptops for neural network processing.

Although there have been rumors that Microsoft will release a major AI update in Microsoft 12, it now appears that the second half of the Microsoft 11 update, scheduled for later this year, may already include many AI upgrades. Microsoft refers to this update as "24H2," which is the annual feature update scheduled to be released in the second half of 2024.

In the coming months, it is expected that Microsoft will intensify the reform of the operating system to embrace the era of AI. There may be more news about Microsoft AI features.