TL;DR Copilot+ (the one that scans all your data) is still not rolling out on compatible CPUs (now it's just the ARM Windows ones with an NPU). My guess is: like a lot of AI related things, it still doesn't work properly

But my takeaway is: it will be default at some point and as far as new CPUs go, they will have the features to make it go. Fuck knows what's gonna happen then, but I'm keeping my eye out for this. I like the idea of freeform search of my data, but I wouldn't just don't trust it

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...indows-11-recall-feature-yet-again/#gsc.tab=0

 

Shocking. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

 

I virtually never use my browser's history, I've never said to myself "wow, if only I could recall my steps", I never find myself wondering "I opened this Word document 5 days ago, if only there was a way to help me remember".

Who is this for?! People with Swiss cheese for brains?! Ah right, it's not for people, it's for MS. There'll be a teeny tiny clause in the Windows EULA a couple years down the road. You grant Microsoft [...] and its 7216 partners [...] the right to [...] use, analyse, transform, [...] any and all data collected while using > the product < or any of its features [...] for any purpose, including, but not limited to [...]

 

And BTW, this is preparation for Windows "AI" 12.
That's one Windows I already know I'm not gonna touch even with a stick, unless all the AI shit can be removed by some modder.

 

Good for you.

If I had proper contextual search, something like when working on a codebase that's several million lines of code spread among hundreds of files, if I could ask "point me to the configuration items related to this function", that would be excellent. There are things where plain text search is not good enough.

Or searching thousands of images when working on graphics, "gimme all the night-time pictures with torches". Ok, bad example, but you get the drift.

But it's a big unknown if any LLM-based search could ever deliver, and yes, there is the privacy standpoint which is an instant no-go for a lot of people. But to say that such search would be useless is pretty silly.

 

Not quite the same but I've got Copilot for O365 and it's awesome. Once you have the license it's then available inside the O365 apps and can save so much time, creating things for you in a fraction of the time, and for the most part it performs tasks better than you could do yourself. Very impressive tool.

 

just one more POS to have to reverse engineer OUT of your installation.

 

This will be deeply embedded with the new AI cores and OS, not reversible at all.
The new M4 Apple CPU's have something similar, all this new AI tech is killing privacy.

 

Asking for a friend: does this feature work with ohook/MAS activated O365?

 

That's why I asked "who is this for [if not for me]?". You have a good use case, but as you said yourself:

Willing to bet money on Microsoft not succeeding where others might.

 

I think it may - besides technical aspects - that this computer inventory feature must comply with the personal data security regulations of the EU. That may not be as easy as in other parts of the world where this protection merely not exists.
When MS won't consider this it may face harsh regulation from EU up to forbidding sales of the whole OS.
And even the EU market is too big to ignore.

Sometimes the EU's regulatory frenzy is a good thing for people after all.

 

You're onto something here. Consider how short people's attention spans have become. Almost zero short term memory. There may indeed be a demand for such a feature. Even though it is clearly brazen data collection.

 

No need to panic, sure they will try to shoehorn it in, but having mandatory AI scan built in would be regulatory suicide. The Apple Intelligence (sigh, who the fuck comes up with these names?) is optional, and they have used the NPU-ish features in iPhones and Macs for ages, for things like speech or handwriting recognition.

Besides, NPUs are by default neutral (just like GPUs and such specific processors), and can be used for actually good purposes. Audio analysis for encoding and separation, echo cancellation etc etc.

I don't like this "AI" bullshit either, but let's not get hysterical, how about that?

 

I think we're still miles away for this being a success, agreed. MS is throwing absolutely metric shittons of money behind this so their hands are kind of tied, they need to show share- and stakeholders that they're actually benefitting from the "investment".

 

People like to say this ("in my youth we skied uphill 20 kilometers to school and back..."), but consider the amount of information your average person needs to deal with daily. It's harder to separate the signal from the noise these days and if tools like this will work (I don't think they do yet), then it's for the good.

Shame about the absurd energy usage, I think there would be better ways to achieve this.

 

Yeah, let's remember the problem here is not the AI. The problem is the potential huge amount personal data collected by Microsoft. Legally or not.

So true again. When I first saw the Windows 12 information I was like WTF. Didn't know yet that one of the biggest investments of MSoft is on AI.

 

Man, what's gotten into you?
Friday night party got out of hand perhaps?...