Microsoft Executive Vice President and Consumer Chief Marketing Officer Yusuf Mehdi speaks at company headquarters in Redmond, Wash., on May 20, 2024. Microsoft unveiled a new category of PC that features generative artificial intelligence tools built into the Windows operating system. Microsoft estimates that over 50 million AI PCs will be sold over the next 12 months, given the appetite for devices powered by ChatGPT-style technology.
On Tuesday, Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 10, the operating system it introduced 10 years earlier.
The software company is enticing people to upgrade their PCs with a slate of artificial intelligence features it will test in Windows 11, the successor to Windows 10.
Those who participate in both the Windows Insider Program and the Copilot Labs group for trying AI experiments will gain access to an updated Copilot assistant app in Windows 11 that can use desktop and web applications to complete certain tasks, such as resizing photos, with locally stored files.
Or perhaps a person could tell Copilot to put all available Brian Eno songs into a Spotify playlist and have the assistant push play, Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's consumer marketing chief, told reporters in a briefing.
Anthropic, Google and OpenAI have all developed AI models known as computer-use agents that accept people's directives to perform actions in multiple steps that involve typing and clicking.
Microsoft has brought this technology to corporate workers who build AI agents, and consumers with premium subscriptions can try a computer-use agent called Copilot Actions. Now the software company is planning a variant for Windows 11.
Copilot Actions will be turned off by default. If enabled, it will operate in a contained environment with its own desktop, Microsoft said. People can watch the software working step by step and take over at any point, although they're free to navigate away and do other things on their PCs as the work happens in the background.