If you are in the market for a new computer, you’ll probably see terms like “AI PC” and “Copilot+ PC” being talked up in the advertising spiel. This is the debut of computers fitted with computer chips dedicated to the task of processing artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
At present, when you ask the ChatGPT intelligent chatbot for some low-carb recipes, the answer is generated in the “cloud”, on a computer server thousands of kilometres away.
AI tasks will increasingly be performed by a neural processor on your computer, which will help you edit video, analyse spreadsheet data and many other things that require a lot of computer processing. This frees up your main processor to do regular tasks, improving performance and battery life. It’s also pitched as being more secure and private, as data remains on your machine, rather than being sent to the cloud.
I’ve been test-driving one of these Copilot+ PCs, a seventh-generation Surface Laptop from Microsoft. It’s a beautiful, well-designed laptop with a premium price tag to match ($2849). I continue to be impressed with how Microsoft’s hardware improves, helping to keep other makers of Windows-based machines on their toes.
But there are two big catches with the AI-powered Surface Laptop. Microsoft switched to a new computer-chip architecture to support its move into AI hardware. Some apps and software drivers aren’t yet compatible with this architecture (called ARM); you may find your favourite app isn’t supported or doesn’t run as well.
There’s a bigger issue – the underwhelming debut of Microsoft’s Copilot AI features. They are physically manifested in the form of the dedicated Copilot button built into the laptop’s keyboard. Pressing it brings up the Copilot assistant, a multimodal chatbot meaning it can handle text, images and audio.
Copilot performs well. The first task I gave it was to assemble a biography about myself, which over the past year has yielded hilarious results from other AI chatbots. Copilot got every detail right.
The assistant appears as a sidebar in applications like Word and Powerpoint, so you can do research as you work on documents, cutting and pasting helpful info using the clipboard function. But you can do this by using the free version of Copilot on the web, or rivals like ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini AI. Copilot built into the laptop just makes it a bit more convenient to navigate.
The AI assistant doesn’t go deep in helping you understand or control your computer. If you ask it what files are in your folders, or for help increasing the screen brightness, it will tell you how to complete those tasks, but won’t do them on your behalf. For Copilot to do useful things, like summarise your email inbox and create Powerpoint presentations based on your text prompts, you need to subscribe to Copilot Pro for $37 a month.
Recall, the AI feature of the laptop that’s been most talked about, was pulled from release just before the laptops hit the market. The feature takes a recording of everything visible on your screen every few seconds, then uses AI to help you sift through your entire computing history. I love the idea of having all that information on tap. But it’s also a honeypot for hackers and Microsoft’s security was flawed, so Recall won’t be widely available for some time.
Other AI features, such as the drawing assistant in the Paint application, are really just gimmicks at this stage.
“Don’t buy this laptop,” BusinessDesk tech writer Ben Moore concluded. “Don’t reward a company for putting underdeveloped, undercooked products into the market and not delivering on key promises.”
I couldn’t have written it better myself.
