On May 20, 2024, Microsoft will announce the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 with ARM chips. Additionally, the company is expected to unveil next-generation AI capabilities for its operating system, and AI Explorer is rumored to steal the show. Now, a new report has revealed more details about the feature ahead of its official announcement.
From the start, the new AI Explorer would not work on “traditional” PCs equipped with Intel and AMD chips. It will require a next-generation chip with a neural processing unit, like a Snapdragon X Elite or Plus. This rumor has apparently been confirmed by a recent code discovery in 24H2 builds of Windows 11.
AI Explorer should run in the background and follow All you do this on your computer, regardless of what application is running. This behavior would allow the feature to create “memories” and return to them at any time. For example, AI Explorer should remember your specific conversation in WhatsApp, summarize emails or web pages, etc.
To alleviate potential privacy concerns and speed things up, Microsoft wants all of this processing to happen on the device. That’s why you’ll need next-generation hardware to run AI Explorer. It’s also worth noting that Microsoft will allow you to specify which apps AI Explorer should not track.
Interestingly, Microsoft is reportedly working on a new search UI that would sit at the top of your screen, allowing you to type anything in natural language. For example, you can ask Windows to show you web pages on a certain topic that you viewed a few days ago. Here is a mockup based on the latest report on AI Explorer:
Additionally, AI Explorer can analyze what’s currently happening on the screen and provide contextual suggestions, such as removing the background from an image, comparing two documents, helping you compose emails, and more. While additional optimization by third-party developers will certainly help, many features should work “as is.”
Sources describe the new AI Explorer as “a truly useful AI experiment,” and soon we’ll be able to judge it for ourselves.
Source: Windows Central
