AI in Windows 11: Everything you need to know about CoPilot+

Microsoft has been busy announcing new Artificial Intelligence (AI) features for Windows 11. We explain what you need to know and how it will affect the way you use your PC.

Whether you like AI or not, your Windows 11 computer is going to have it – either now or in the near future. At Microsoft's Build 2024 conference this week, the tech giant revealed how it reckons you'll want to use your computer in the coming years. 

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CoPilot+ will introduce new offline tools to help you get stuff done

One of the main problems with AI tools is that they are expensive to run. This is why the free versions of tools like ChatGPT either limit the intelligence of the chatbot you’re using or limit how many queries you can ask it in a given time period. 

Microsoft’s CoPilot+ aims to solve this for some basic tasks by making your computer do the AI work, instead of requiring an internet-based service. This is done by using a new type of chip on your computer called an NPU (Neural Processing Unit) that can efficiently conduct basic AI-based tasks without needing an internet connection.

Keep in mind that this doesn’t change the CoPilot tools already built into Windows 11. These use remote servers to conduct web searches, help you generate ideas and the like. All Windows 11 computers can still do this and CoPilot+ doesn’t change that fact.

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What was Microsoft's most interesting AI announcement?

The Recall tool solves a frustration that many of us will be familiar with: ‘Where did I see that?’. 

For example, you saw an article on Which.co.uk that you planned to read later but you didn’t make a note of it, and days later you’re trying to figure out what it was. With Recall, you could ask your computer ‘What was that laptop article on the Which? website’? and your computer should, in theory, be able to find the article. 

This also works for things like images – Microsoft uses the example of a shopping page with white trainers – simply describe what you saw and Recall will bring it up for you. 

How Microsoft Recall works

Windows will take a screenshot every few seconds and then use AI to recognise what’s happening on the screen at any given time. It then stores that away until you need it. 

Worried about privacy and security implications? Microsoft says you will be able to pause or disable this feature. Keep reading to find out what we think about it.

Create your own images and translate languages

Microsoft also introduced Cocreator, which generates AI-crafted images based on your scribblings in the Paint program, and a tool called Restyle that takes your personal image library and jazzes pictures up in the style of your choosing. Both look like a bit of fun but it’s hard to imagine these AI-created images being genuinely usable anywhere other than a classroom.

Perhaps more useful is the live captions tool. That takes audio from any app on your PC and translates it from any one of 40+ languages into English, in real time. 

Beyond the tools built into Windows 11, software companies such as Adobe and DaVinci are starting to build features into their apps that can use CoPilot+ to make repetitive or creative tasks easier and faster.

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But it’s still AI for the few, not the many

Microsoft also announced CoPilot+ branded laptops. There’s a lot of techie stuff behind it, but the short version is: if the computer you’re buying has a powerful enough NPU (Neural Processing Unit) and CoPilot+ branding (and believe us, computer brands won’t let you miss it), it will work with all CoPilot+ related AI tools. 

That means AI on Windows is a two-tier system; with all existing computers being unable to use the latest features that Microsoft announced this week. And your next computer may not be compatible, either. Right now, only a small selection of (yet-to-be-released) laptops powered by Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X processors will be compatible, but Intel has promised CoPilot+ processors are in the works.

Most laptops available for the foreseeable future won’t be able to access the tools announced this week. But if you’re a glass-half-full type of person, it at least gives you something to look forward to. 

What’s surprising is that the whole host of computers powered by Intel’s new AI-focused Core Ultra processors do not work with CoPilot+ because the built-in NPUs aren’t powerful enough. So anybody who bought a Core Ultra laptop expecting it to work with whatever future AI tools Microsoft was going to bring along will be sorely disappointed.

New CoPilot+ laptops on the way 

Microsoft also used its event to announce its new Surface Laptop '7th Edition' that’s CoPilot+-ready. It starts at £1,049 in the UK and is available to pre-order from Microsoft now for delivery in mid-June. 

Aside from Microsoft, laptops from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung have also been announced, all with CoPilot+. Rest assured all these devices will be in our test lab as soon as they’re available to buy. CoPilot+ branding doesn't just mean the tools you can use; it also equates to a certain processor speed, battery life, storage and more.

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Expert view

Michael Passingham, Which? senior researcher

If you’re still suspicious of AI – and I absolutely don’t blame you, I am too – the announcements from Microsoft might make you uneasy. AI assistance baked right into your personal computer, watching everything you do in case you happen to want to remember something, is a bit of a leap. (In fact, after I wrote this, the Information Commissioner's Office announced it had questions about this feature and would be looking into it.)

Of course, this feature and those like it can be turned off. But it's increasingly obvious that AI is going to creep into many aspects of our lives, and our use of personal tech is probably the first area this is going to happen. You might justifiably fear a future where it’s impossible to use your tech without AI trying to help you out – even when you don’t want it. 

Do we want to have established, giant, trillion-dollar tech companies such as Microsoft, Google, Apple and Amazon, as well as newer upstarts such as OpenAI, even more ingrained into our everyday lives (just ask Scarlett Johansson)? We already let them into our web browsing, shopping and video consumption habits after all: do we want to do it again?

What I would say is that it’s best to keep an open mind, and pick and choose the things to be excited about or suspicious of. Things like instant live translation that doesn’t need a fast internet connection could genuinely revolutionise the way we socialise and do business globally, and the usefulness of AI-assisted search or ideas generation is already well established in many of our lives. But while we still have a choice about where AI fits into our lives, be sure to exercise your rights to opt out.

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