Microsoft unveiled on Monday a new lineup of personal computers with artificial intelligence (AI) features as it rushes to bring the emerging technology into products across its business and compete with other tech giants such as Alphabet and Apple.
At an event on its campus in Redmond, Washington, Chief Executive Satya Nadella introduced what Microsoft calls "Copilot+" PCs, saying that it and a range of manufacturers would sell them, including Acer and ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
Microsoft wants laptop users to get so comfortable with its artificial intelligence chatbot that it will remember everything you are doing on your computer and help figure out what you want to do next.
The software giant's latest update and revealing of a new class of AI-imbued personal computers comes as it confronts fierce competition from Big Tech rivals in pitching generative AI technology that can compose documents, make images and serve as a lifelike personal assistant at work or home.
The announcement comes ahead of Microsoft's annual Build developer conference centered on fusing its AI assistant, called Copilot, into the Windows operating system for PCs, where Microsoft already has the eyes of millions of consumers.
The new features will include Windows "Recall," giving the AI assistant what Microsoft describes as a "photographic memory" of a person's virtual activity. Microsoft promises to protect users' privacy by giving them the option to filter out what they don't want to be tracked and keeping the tracking on the device.
The ability to crunch AI data directly on the computer lets Copilot+ include a Recall feature that tracks everything done on the computer, from web browsing to voice chats, creating a history stored on the computer that the user can search when they need to remember something they did, even months later.
It's a step toward machines that "instantly see us, hear, reason about our intent and our surroundings," said Nadella.
"We’re entering this new era where computers not only understand us but can actually anticipate what we want and our intent," he said at the event in Redmond, Washington.
The conference, which starts Tuesday in Seattle, follows big AI announcements last week from rival Google, as well as Microsoft's close business partner OpenAI, which built the AI large language models (LLMs) on which Microsoft's Copilot is based.
Google rolled out a retooled search engine that periodically displays AI-generated summaries over website links at the top of the results page. It also showed off a still-in-development AI assistant, Astra, that will be able to "see" and converse about things shown through a smartphone’s camera lens.
ChatGPT-maker OpenAI unveiled a new version of its chatbot last week, demonstrating an AI voice assistant with human characteristics that can banter about what someone's wearing and even attempt to assess a person’s emotions. The voice sounded so much like Scarlett Johansson playing an AI character in the sci-fi movie "Her" that OpenAI dropped the voice from its collection Monday.
OpenAI also rolled out a new desktop version of ChatGPT designed for Apple's Mac computers.
Next up is Apple's own annual developers conference in June. Apple CEO Tim Cook signaled at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in February that it has been investing in generative AI.
Some of Microsoft's announcements Monday appeared designed to blunt whatever Apple has in store. The newly AI-enhanced Windows PCs will start rolling out on June 18 on computers made by Microsoft partners Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung, as well as on Microsoft's Surface line of devices. But they'll be reserved for premium models starting at $999.
While Copilot is rooted in OpenAI's large language models, Microsoft said the new AI PCs will also rely heavily on its own homegrown "small language models" that are designed to be more efficient and able to more easily run on a consumer's personal device.
Powered by Qualcomm chips, many of the computers will end up in the hands of workers at big organizations looking to refresh their inventory, said Gartner analyst Jason Wong.
AI applications from graphics production to language translation "can now run locally without having to go back to the cloud to process it," said Wong. "That’s going to help with what you can do without connected internet and make it that much more high performing."