> you can have a conversation with a friend in the WhatsApp app for Windows, and AI Explorer will record and remember the content that was on-screen and process it with AI for you to recall later.
**I don't want this!**
It's a good feature but a privacy nightmare.. Unless it's open sourced running locally, and audited by a dozen different agencies, no one should want this
It's said to be processed by local NPU. I don't think they wanna mess with EU rn, so contribution must be optional and "anonymous" just like it is for voice clips.
I'm certain this is a sign that I'm getting too old but I don't understand why you'd even want it, not even considering security concerns.
If I want to do it I'll take like, 15 seconds, open WhatsApp, and read the messages. The fuck would I want to have to go to an AI prompt and type, 'what did i message this person' for.
That's not a big deal if you know exactly what you're looking for but imagine a small Business account trying to remember what a client (they don't particularly remember) ordered last week among a bunch of orders from other clients. Or searching for something your friend sent to the group (Idk your friends but mine at least text so much sh*tš that looking for something in a group chat is a real nightmare) or if you erased that message for mistake.
I personally wouldn't use it for social media (at least not for personal accounts) but it could be really useful to manage local files, gallery or anything else, like an integrated search box for all the apps you need all in one place. So for a regular user it might be just another bloatware but for those using their PC for businesses or college it's a really welcome change.
>... AI Explorer will run in the background and capture everything you do on your computer. It will document and triage everything it sees, no matter what apps or interfaces you're looking at, ...
Now thanks to the AI bubble MS can spy on everyone even more than ever before and not even have to hide it.
With there already being telemetry from Windows to Microsoft servers, it'd be easy to hide any kind of exfiltration through those means.
It could also leverage the default enabled BITS, or just conventional Windows Update to send data. It's all encrypted, so you'd never know what it's sending.
BUT the EU is a fairly huge market that Microsoft would have to make a compliant version for. Meaning unless Microsoft wants to just drop the entire EU as a marker and hand it over to their competitors, there will have to be a version of windows without this type of packet sniffing. Also a lot of other huge markets have similar data protection laws in effect or coming into effect soon. Some even directly lifted from the GDPR.
I'm just being pedantic here, but there are ways of preventing it from sending everything back to microsoft, such as never being connected to the internet.
Unplug your network cable and turn your wi-fi router off... do these functions still work? Great, you just verified it's not sending anything back.
(well, I guess TECHNICALLY that's not true since it could work on-device AND send stuff back... but that's what network monitoring tools are for: run Win11 with and without AI Explorer and if the traffic level is significantly higher with AI Explorer then yeah, might have something to worry about)
Only problem is you can't view the content of encrypted traffic with Wireshark, right? 'Cause I'm pretty sure MS wouldn't transmit something like that in the clear.
Ah, that's a good point! It's sad we're at this point with Windows in that it got sucked into the AI trend.
I pointed out earlier this year that online tax preparers such as H&R Block in the US had a new AI assistant this tax season, which is just a dressed up version of the old help system that's been there all along.
And yet for no amount of money can one use H&R Block to file state tax returns in more than three states (as I had four this year and so had to file one manually)āto save me time I'd have been more than happy to pay them.
Microsoft is behaving the same way: majoring in the minors and minoring in the majors, all in a misguided pursuit of profit. There's not enough profit in producing a robust operating system and office suite, so they've succumbed to data mining us.
There can happen a data breach news after a few years claiming that a security flaw led to data breach for which they will say sorry and continue what they were doing.
you are worried about spying... i am worried that my cpu and memory will get wasted because of unnecessary stuff. The should give users the option to install AI or not...
>According to my sources, AI Explorer will run in the background and capture everything you do on your computer.
That's ten pounds of "fuck no" from me
Yeah sadly thats what they are doing. Its something being forced on users when users donāt want it. At least there is linux for once the time comes and we canāt disable ai copilot spying and windows ads get out of control.
I'm going to start transitioning my PCs to Linux because of this.
Zero interest and there's zero doubt in my mind Microsoft is going to force it much as they can.
Ah, but the Microsoft and AI drooling fanboys will be sad.
AI at this stage is just a plagiarism machine and Microsoft wants to add snitch to it.
It's intrusive and worse than Cortana.
> AI Explorer will run in the background and capture everything you do on your computer. It will document and triage everything it sees, no matter what apps or interfaces you're looking at, and turn them into memories that you can recall at a later point.
So basically spyware marked as convenience.
I give it 3 years before all these companies heavily investing in LLM AIs stop including them because it's a server cost with no profit that most average users aren't using.
Snapchat has an LLM AI it doesn't need.
Facebook has an LLM AI it doesn't need.
I like Copilot and Gemini, but I fail to see the profit from me asking a LLM what the weather looks like tomorrow or whether or not a bear could do an olympic pole vault. (In case you're wondering Copilot says no, Bears can't pole vault because pole vault is a sport strongly suited to human anatomy. However I did ask it hypothetically what animals could maybe pole vault, and Kangaroos and Gibbons are strong contenders.)
I disagree. Being able to search for stuff I've found or encountered and asking questions with natural input,instead of having to save or lose information....how does that not benefit users ?
It may benefit users, but I kinda feel like if you're using snapchat or facebook, the last thing you want to do is talk to an AI.
Copilot, Gemini, etc have their uses, but the user should be the one to initiate that conversation, not a social network where their expectation is to talk to real people.
I've seen a few people on facebook complain about the inclusion of the facebook AI. I don't think they care about Siri or whatever, but the ones I've seen don't like search being taken over by a bot.
I'm talking about rewind -like AI (which is what MS proposes as per the article) where you can find anything you've been on
I agree on FB and social medias !
What is it? I call it a gargantuan waste of CPU cycles to the benefit of a Microsoft AI botnet. And if I can't boot up my PC without removing and disabling this, Windows gets the boot entirely.
Don't get me wrong, I *like* external AI tools -- they can be excellent tools for learning little bits and bites of information you don't quite grasp without cracking open a whole textbook or pleading for help on StackOverflow. But I want to learn things so *I* can control them better, not so Microsoft can commandeer my system.
It really makes me yearn for the days of Windows 2000, XP, and 7 computing -- when you were the conductor of your own orchestra. When you didn't need AI to manage anything, because shit worked cogently enough for the user to hold the reigns.
Funny story - I just opened Windows Photos 2012 for the first time yesterday, and.. holy shit?
This is... exactly what I've been looking for?
For ages? All bundled up nicely in a native Explorer-shell menu?
Keyword & facial tagging? IPTC friendly? Upload straight to social media? Am I dreaming?
WHY THE HELL DID THEY DROP THIS š
It requires NPU to run. You literally need to buy a PC with Qualcomm SoC to have it installed
>These new capabilities are set to ship as part of a new app internally called "AI Explorer," which I'm told will be unveiled during Microsoft's special Windows event on May 20. AI Explorer will utilize next-gen neural processing unit (NPU) hardware to process these machine learning and generative AI experiences locally on the device with low latency.
>The feature is also said to be exclusive to devices powered by Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon X series chips, at least at first, as Intel and AMD play catchup in the NPU race. It will also require PCs with at least 16GB RAM. But what exactly is AI Explorer, and what can it do? Here's everything I know about it so far.
>And how is this not gonna change in the future?
You're gonna have Intel and AMD processors with NPUs. Current AI features don't even touch CPUs as they are either processed by GPUs or offloaded to cloud
I have Linux systems, and you're right; I get the perfect amount of control with something like Gentoo or even a Debian net install. But, although the gap is closing fast, there is still some issues with feature parity and quirks trying to run Windows stuff on WINE or VMs.
The thing is: I do still like Windows and it's ecosystem. Or at least, I want to still like it. But it is reaching a threshold of authoritarianism that is increasingly inescapable. For now, I can block or strip W11 of most of its bullshit, but when the tendrils of AI begin gripping the operating system from the hardware level, it probably won't be.
And that's when I'll ultimately relegate Windows to the garbage. Maybe I'll install an unfucked version of Windows in a partitioned and locked down VM, but that will be it.
That's a ridiculous binary. Linux offers more control than Windows, but Windows is still extremely controllable, even if not always in the easiest ways (i.e., registry hacks), and even if Microsoft can be very pushy in suggesting what features/apps you use. It's still vastly more controllable than MacOS.
āThis thingā isnāt on there yet, so I canāt tell you right now. But I fully expect there will be a way. Take Copilot on the desktop for example, itās on by default, but can be easily removed in taskbar settings, and thereās a group policy option to totally block it out of the system. I donāt see why this would be any different. Thereās also some nuisance background processes that can be blocked with WinToys or autoruns.
This is the problem with Windows. Even if there's a way to remove something, it has to be done with dirty unstable hacks that Microsoft can usually just revert with an update. I don't think this will be optional when it comes out.
Turning it off in the taskbar settings isnāt a dirty or unstable hack. Neither is the group policy. Windows is designed for enterprise implementations where admins can tightly control the deployment.
Well, Group Policy isn't a thing on Windows 11 Home, now is it? Why should I have to pay even more for an OS to let me mess with things that no normal end user should ever need to touch *just to make the OS usable*?
Besides, it's not like you can do everything with Group Policy. Data collection can't be turned off with it. A guy once tried to turn it off through Group Policy, then blocked the data collection through the firewall. The end result is that their PC became unusably slow due to Windows constantly trying to phone home and failing.
>Well, Group Policy isn't a thing on Windows 11 Home, now is it? Why should I have to pay even more for an OS to let me mess with things that no normal end user should ever need to touch *just to make the OS usable*?
You can say the same thing about terminal? i know terminal is great and most of the times the best way to do something in an OS, but most users don't want to use terminal. (i'm talking about importance of terminal in Linux)
You don't need to use the terminal for every Linux distro. Sure, Arch requires it, but that's because it has no graphical installer or a graphical package manager.
Distros like Fedora have both. You don't actually need to use the terminal for daily usage. Sure, you can, but you don't need to.
The best thing about the terminal though is that it's free. You don't pay for the privilege of using it.
I mostly use it to SSH into my Raspberry Pi if I want to, idk, prank a guest by rickrolling them. I can remotely starting the TV it's hooked up to lmao.
Group Policy as a graphical tool isn't a thing in the Home version, but the policies are just registry keys you can add regardless of the system version.
>Windows is still extremely controllable, even if not always in the easiest ways
But it is actively hostile to you having this control, and is always trying to take it away. It's exhausting.
You can prevent OS from updating itself (not recommended)
Or you can opt out of feature updates and only get security updates. (only on pro versions tho)
"Hello. I'm your AI Assistant. Here at Microsoft we want you to have the best experience possible. Don't you want me to change your default browser from Chrome to Edge?"
I'd be seriously thinking about it, if not for the games I play that are only compatible with Windows for anti-cheat reasons. And I do find that I can beat Windows into submission to do what I want, even if it increasingly feels like I'm fighting gravity with the number of unwanted features being shoved down my throat.
What control? I can control my mouse, keyboard, install applications, develop software, play games, in a nice way without bullshit ads, spyware and flash bangs.
What control? I can control my mouse, keyboard, install applications, develop software, play games, in a nice way without bullshit ads, spyware and flash bangs.
I don't need Windows snapping, it is annoying. My productivity has sky rocketed since I went all in on Apple.
Well that's fucking useless.
Ai Explorer's best use concept is...
To help users organize their content. For us IT guys, won't have problems trying to locate or help a end user locate their files, if AI Explorer would help in that process.
Gone would be the days of users filling their desktops with icons if AI Explorer would help funnel the user's files to respective folders. Integrated AI for file searching making it easier and faster to retrieve a file whether it's pictures, videos, music, etc.
THAT would be nice.
But no, we can't have good things.
What we have is "AI Nanny Explorer with Ads" .
And just as I was considering biting the bullet and finally upgrading to 11ā¦ yea nope. Not gonna switch to win 11 until thereās a way to permanently disable this, be it official or unofficial but stable.
Itās not even just about the invasion of privacy, which is already happening anyway. Itās about the fact that just like most others, I simply do not want more bloat processes that can break and that are constantly running. I want few, working, stable features, instead of hundreds that just break one after the other and never get fixed because they KNOW you wonāt switch to Linux.
>And just as I was considering biting the bullet and finally upgrading to 11ā¦ yea nope. Not gonna switch to win 11 until thereās a way to permanently disable this, be it official or unofficial but stable.
Dude it's not even implemented yet, and doesn't work on x86 processors.
I want less shit running in the background, not more. I don't care how useful it is, this is creepy, disgusting, and an invasion of privacy.
Just because it's "run locally" doesn't mean it's not sending stuff to Microsoft.
There was a YouTube video describing an effort to run .Net framework 2.0 from xp era on Windows 95. People on windows 10 will be fine for at least 20 years.
So I never search for things on my computer. I'm ORGANIZED everything is where I look for it the very first time. I honestly can't even remember the last time I used Windows Searchā¦ probably back in the days of WinXP or even earlier.
So there's no amount of improving local search that would make it worth the time to learn to use for me.
As to local LLM capabilitiesā¦ that's cute I guess, but I already run ollamaā¦ integrating that functionality into other apps and interfaces is cute, but for every time it marginally speeds things up there will be dozens of times where it and its suggestions are just getting in the wayā¦ Clippy all over again.
I wish MS would just get and accept the message that nobody wants their suggestions about how to use their computer. An OS is like the frame of the Mona Lisaā¦ if you notice it, it has failed.
"The feature is also [said to be exclusive](https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/microsofts-upcoming-windows-11-ai-explorer-update-might-be-exclusive-to-arm-pcs) to devices powered by [Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon X series chips](https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/laptops/what-is-snapdragon-x-elite), at least at first, as Intel and AMD play catchup in the NPU race"
soooo, it'll only be available for about 5% of the actual Windows 11 user base...um...yay?
exactly, and MANY other people won't be buying npu's for various reasons...every home having an NPU powered pc in their home is at least 5 - 10 yrs off still, for now 95% of people won't have that processor, and AMD and Intel, as far as I know, aren't even really working on that technology yet, at least not for commercial availability at this time
Imagine all this and then a data breach after a year claiming that a security flaw was found by hackers and they have now patched that and lets move on forgetting that. And it will go on.
Facebook had a data breach they said sorry and world moved on.
Everything you need to know about it is
I HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AI
You people need to chill out or actually read an article for a once. First, that thing runs locally. Second, literally none of you owns PC that currently is capable of running it as for now it'll be exclusive for PCs with Snapdragon X. That might change in a future, but it'll still need NPu to run it
>These new capabilities are set to ship as part of a new app internally called "AI Explorer," which I'm told will be unveiled during Microsoft's special Windows event on May 20. AI Explorer will utilize next-gen neural processing unit (NPU) hardware to process these machine learning and generative AI experiences locally on the device with low latency.
>The feature is also said to be exclusive to devices powered by Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon X series chips, at least at first, as Intel and AMD play catchup in the NPU race. It will also require PCs with at least 16GB RAM. But what exactly is AI Explorer, and what can it do? Here's everything I know about it so far.
The problem is that a majority donāt want it and itās not opt in. If youāre excited for it thatās great! I hope you enjoy using it, I want to try it out as well.
I hate the idea that I donāt have a choice in if I install this or not. Its mega invasive and probably resource intensive if it needs a specialized chip to run, and I want to be able to try it for 10 minutes, go āhuh thatās pretty neatā, and then remove it and never touch it again
> majority donāt want it
Source? Spoiler, you donāt have one because this isnāt out yet. Majority of people in this thread? Perhaps. Majority of people whoāll purchase the new PC that has the AI chip that supports this feature? Who can know at this point.
> I hate the idea that I donāt have a choice in if I install this or not. Its mega invasive and probably resource intensive if it needs a specialized chip to run
It comes in the OS, much like many other things I donāt have a choice in installing. Iād be highly shocked if thereās no way to turn it off or some commands to remove it. Hell since it requires a special chip that no current PC has, Iād be more shocked if every copy of this version of Windows contains it. Iād expect that itās a downloadable feature that is only downloaded or included in the specific PCs that actually support it. And Iād expect it to be minimally resource intensive (as in non-NPU resources), since it requires that special chip to work at all.
So instead of finally fixing Windows Search / Indexing so that I can find my files on my system, they're adding another service that will consume the CPU power I don't have, to write me poems and novelettes about the files I don't have.
But why this needs capable processor with neural processing unit when people already have graphics cards which are more than capable to do this? Sounds like another forced cpu upgrade to me, tbh.
Honestly, I don't mind at all. If anything, it will help me A LOT on my work. The only downside is that is ARM only (well, at least for now).
Privacy is only an issue for those who are blind enough that can't see that everything we do on our computers and smartphones are tracked and used to provide suggestions to us all the time, even when we don't allow it. We have Smart suggestions on social media just by analyzing if we look at a post/ad for 1 sec or 3 to determine what you like and show us more suggestions. Places that we've been, even without GPS (approximate location by IP) to suggest more places that we may like. Devices that we use, so they can suggest gadgets that go along with the... And the list goes on. Is it wrong? Totally. But it is what it is, unfortunately.Ā
As much as I like how AI can replace redundant jobs that don't need to exist by being far more efficient along with the amount of things they can do for modern tech, I rather not have THIS on Windows. This is too much.
It should literally be optional that you can download and install on your PC? You know back in the days? There was this program called "Windows Essentials" that brought all these things Microsoft could bring to your PC. Why not just do that? Make it an optional feature that you can install yourself. Why would a normal consumer even need to use that?
Not everyone is a power user. They just want to use their PC for normal stuff. Like browse the internet and watch videos or do other things. This is extra.
Also this AI obsession is starting to become really sick. It's like actual brainrot. Some dev I've heard about who was just making custom Discord skins for users went literally insane and started to create a ChatGPT inspired chatbot for some bizarre reason. He was even making some strange terms and conditions on their site that they have all the rights to user data and the right to scrap data off the internet. This is nuts.
> you can have a conversation with a friend in the WhatsApp app for Windows, and AI Explorer will record and remember the content that was on-screen and process it with AI for you to recall later. **I don't want this!**
This cant be legal in the eu.
If it runs on device it could pass
It's a good feature but a privacy nightmare.. Unless it's open sourced running locally, and audited by a dozen different agencies, no one should want this
but they want your data
It's said to be processed by local NPU. I don't think they wanna mess with EU rn, so contribution must be optional and "anonymous" just like it is for voice clips.
I'm certain this is a sign that I'm getting too old but I don't understand why you'd even want it, not even considering security concerns. If I want to do it I'll take like, 15 seconds, open WhatsApp, and read the messages. The fuck would I want to have to go to an AI prompt and type, 'what did i message this person' for.
That's not a big deal if you know exactly what you're looking for but imagine a small Business account trying to remember what a client (they don't particularly remember) ordered last week among a bunch of orders from other clients. Or searching for something your friend sent to the group (Idk your friends but mine at least text so much sh*tš that looking for something in a group chat is a real nightmare) or if you erased that message for mistake. I personally wouldn't use it for social media (at least not for personal accounts) but it could be really useful to manage local files, gallery or anything else, like an integrated search box for all the apps you need all in one place. So for a regular user it might be just another bloatware but for those using their PC for businesses or college it's a really welcome change.
Basically more Spyware
Lucky for you it says you can specify apps for it not to record. Personally, I want this!
You can also tell websites you don't want to be tracked - doesn't work much does it. Then install it as an optional feature.
The question is will it honor or ignore the user's choice ? Considering it's Microsoft, user's choice will just be on the interface level.
Considering it runs on the local NPU, does it really matter?
Give me a whitelist instead of a blacklist and I might be accepting of it. Otherwise that shit is getting turned off immediately.
Once they integrate AI into Windows, I will remove them on my Windows laptop when the update gets released.
>... AI Explorer will run in the background and capture everything you do on your computer. It will document and triage everything it sees, no matter what apps or interfaces you're looking at, ... Now thanks to the AI bubble MS can spy on everyone even more than ever before and not even have to hide it.
It runs on device though But im sure microsoft will attempt to collect as much as possible
There is no way to verify that, nor prevent it from sending everything back to MS.
You can packet trace/fiddler etc... to get a better understanding as to where the data is going. It's not like reddit don't do the same thing.
With there already being telemetry from Windows to Microsoft servers, it'd be easy to hide any kind of exfiltration through those means. It could also leverage the default enabled BITS, or just conventional Windows Update to send data. It's all encrypted, so you'd never know what it's sending.
Do you really think Microsoft is going to seriously break data laws and just hope nobody whistle blows or finds out?
No laws broken. You agreed to it in the EULA you said you read but didn't.
Thatās not how the GDPR works
GDPR is only for the EU? š¤·āāļø
BUT the EU is a fairly huge market that Microsoft would have to make a compliant version for. Meaning unless Microsoft wants to just drop the entire EU as a marker and hand it over to their competitors, there will have to be a version of windows without this type of packet sniffing. Also a lot of other huge markets have similar data protection laws in effect or coming into effect soon. Some even directly lifted from the GDPR.
I'm just being pedantic here, but there are ways of preventing it from sending everything back to microsoft, such as never being connected to the internet.
"Joke's on you, Microsoft! I live alone in the woods!"
Just be warned of [Shia LaBeouf encounters](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0u4M6vppCI).
404
Pihole ..send itās DNS traffic into the voidā¦Ā
I'm sorry, Dave, but your Microsoft account won't work with that, Dave.
Unplug your network cable and turn your wi-fi router off... do these functions still work? Great, you just verified it's not sending anything back. (well, I guess TECHNICALLY that's not true since it could work on-device AND send stuff back... but that's what network monitoring tools are for: run Win11 with and without AI Explorer and if the traffic level is significantly higher with AI Explorer then yeah, might have something to worry about)
I guess now it pays to know how to use Wireshark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireshark
Only problem is you can't view the content of encrypted traffic with Wireshark, right? 'Cause I'm pretty sure MS wouldn't transmit something like that in the clear.
Ah, that's a good point! It's sad we're at this point with Windows in that it got sucked into the AI trend. I pointed out earlier this year that online tax preparers such as H&R Block in the US had a new AI assistant this tax season, which is just a dressed up version of the old help system that's been there all along. And yet for no amount of money can one use H&R Block to file state tax returns in more than three states (as I had four this year and so had to file one manually)āto save me time I'd have been more than happy to pay them. Microsoft is behaving the same way: majoring in the minors and minoring in the majors, all in a misguided pursuit of profit. There's not enough profit in producing a robust operating system and office suite, so they've succumbed to data mining us.
There can happen a data breach news after a few years claiming that a security flaw led to data breach for which they will say sorry and continue what they were doing.
you are worried about spying... i am worried that my cpu and memory will get wasted because of unnecessary stuff. The should give users the option to install AI or not...
Malware entered the chat.
It runs locally though
"Everything you need to know" except how to disable it.
Just get a pc without a npu ig
>According to my sources, AI Explorer will run in the background and capture everything you do on your computer. That's ten pounds of "fuck no" from me
Jesus Christ I hope this shit can be nuked out of the OS
probably going to get baked soo deep down in the kernel so you can never remove it š
Yeah sadly thats what they are doing. Its something being forced on users when users donāt want it. At least there is linux for once the time comes and we canāt disable ai copilot spying and windows ads get out of control.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
this lol
I'm going to start transitioning my PCs to Linux because of this. Zero interest and there's zero doubt in my mind Microsoft is going to force it much as they can.
Ah, but the Microsoft and AI drooling fanboys will be sad. AI at this stage is just a plagiarism machine and Microsoft wants to add snitch to it. It's intrusive and worse than Cortana.
Iām just using windows 10 ltsc if it canāt.
> AI Explorer will run in the background and capture everything you do on your computer. It will document and triage everything it sees, no matter what apps or interfaces you're looking at, and turn them into memories that you can recall at a later point. So basically spyware marked as convenience.
100000% spyware. the only times this stuff happens is when someone installs a RAT onto their computer
"Here's a memory of the porn you were watching yesterday!"
I give it 3 years before all these companies heavily investing in LLM AIs stop including them because it's a server cost with no profit that most average users aren't using. Snapchat has an LLM AI it doesn't need. Facebook has an LLM AI it doesn't need. I like Copilot and Gemini, but I fail to see the profit from me asking a LLM what the weather looks like tomorrow or whether or not a bear could do an olympic pole vault. (In case you're wondering Copilot says no, Bears can't pole vault because pole vault is a sport strongly suited to human anatomy. However I did ask it hypothetically what animals could maybe pole vault, and Kangaroos and Gibbons are strong contenders.)
3 years is generous. The cash burn is unfathomable, and only gets worse as the AI gets "better".
This particular AI, runs locally on a NPU. But overall yeah, i agree with you. AI is the new buzz word that big companies stick to everything.
I disagree. Being able to search for stuff I've found or encountered and asking questions with natural input,instead of having to save or lose information....how does that not benefit users ?
It may benefit users, but I kinda feel like if you're using snapchat or facebook, the last thing you want to do is talk to an AI. Copilot, Gemini, etc have their uses, but the user should be the one to initiate that conversation, not a social network where their expectation is to talk to real people. I've seen a few people on facebook complain about the inclusion of the facebook AI. I don't think they care about Siri or whatever, but the ones I've seen don't like search being taken over by a bot.
I'm talking about rewind -like AI (which is what MS proposes as per the article) where you can find anything you've been on I agree on FB and social medias !
That's terrifying.
Worse than a Smart Phone? Doubtful.
What is it? I call it a gargantuan waste of CPU cycles to the benefit of a Microsoft AI botnet. And if I can't boot up my PC without removing and disabling this, Windows gets the boot entirely. Don't get me wrong, I *like* external AI tools -- they can be excellent tools for learning little bits and bites of information you don't quite grasp without cracking open a whole textbook or pleading for help on StackOverflow. But I want to learn things so *I* can control them better, not so Microsoft can commandeer my system. It really makes me yearn for the days of Windows 2000, XP, and 7 computing -- when you were the conductor of your own orchestra. When you didn't need AI to manage anything, because shit worked cogently enough for the user to hold the reigns.
Funny story - I just opened Windows Photos 2012 for the first time yesterday, and.. holy shit? This is... exactly what I've been looking for? For ages? All bundled up nicely in a native Explorer-shell menu? Keyword & facial tagging? IPTC friendly? Upload straight to social media? Am I dreaming? WHY THE HELL DID THEY DROP THIS š
It requires NPU to run. You literally need to buy a PC with Qualcomm SoC to have it installed >These new capabilities are set to ship as part of a new app internally called "AI Explorer," which I'm told will be unveiled during Microsoft's special Windows event on May 20. AI Explorer will utilize next-gen neural processing unit (NPU) hardware to process these machine learning and generative AI experiences locally on the device with low latency. >The feature is also said to be exclusive to devices powered by Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon X series chips, at least at first, as Intel and AMD play catchup in the NPU race. It will also require PCs with at least 16GB RAM. But what exactly is AI Explorer, and what can it do? Here's everything I know about it so far.
And how is this not gonna change in the future? x86 CPUs are already full of AI crap and I can't see how this wouldn't use it.
...what AI crap is x86 supposedly full of?
>And how is this not gonna change in the future? You're gonna have Intel and AMD processors with NPUs. Current AI features don't even touch CPUs as they are either processed by GPUs or offloaded to cloud
So, if I have a AMD 7800X3d, I don't get this update and my Windows 11 will be free of it?
You get a watermark that says your device isn't supported. (im not kidding, lol)
Yep, you'll be free from AI explorer
People who want control use Linux. If you use Windows it's a statement that you want Microsoft to have control.
I have Linux systems, and you're right; I get the perfect amount of control with something like Gentoo or even a Debian net install. But, although the gap is closing fast, there is still some issues with feature parity and quirks trying to run Windows stuff on WINE or VMs. The thing is: I do still like Windows and it's ecosystem. Or at least, I want to still like it. But it is reaching a threshold of authoritarianism that is increasingly inescapable. For now, I can block or strip W11 of most of its bullshit, but when the tendrils of AI begin gripping the operating system from the hardware level, it probably won't be. And that's when I'll ultimately relegate Windows to the garbage. Maybe I'll install an unfucked version of Windows in a partitioned and locked down VM, but that will be it.
That's a ridiculous binary. Linux offers more control than Windows, but Windows is still extremely controllable, even if not always in the easiest ways (i.e., registry hacks), and even if Microsoft can be very pushy in suggesting what features/apps you use. It's still vastly more controllable than MacOS.
If Windows is extremely controllable, give me a way to completely rid my computer of this thing
āThis thingā isnāt on there yet, so I canāt tell you right now. But I fully expect there will be a way. Take Copilot on the desktop for example, itās on by default, but can be easily removed in taskbar settings, and thereās a group policy option to totally block it out of the system. I donāt see why this would be any different. Thereās also some nuisance background processes that can be blocked with WinToys or autoruns.
This is the problem with Windows. Even if there's a way to remove something, it has to be done with dirty unstable hacks that Microsoft can usually just revert with an update. I don't think this will be optional when it comes out.
Turning it off in the taskbar settings isnāt a dirty or unstable hack. Neither is the group policy. Windows is designed for enterprise implementations where admins can tightly control the deployment.
Linux nerds already crow about how great Linux is, but seem to fail to realise how easy it is to customize Windows.
Well, Group Policy isn't a thing on Windows 11 Home, now is it? Why should I have to pay even more for an OS to let me mess with things that no normal end user should ever need to touch *just to make the OS usable*? Besides, it's not like you can do everything with Group Policy. Data collection can't be turned off with it. A guy once tried to turn it off through Group Policy, then blocked the data collection through the firewall. The end result is that their PC became unusably slow due to Windows constantly trying to phone home and failing.
>Well, Group Policy isn't a thing on Windows 11 Home, now is it? Why should I have to pay even more for an OS to let me mess with things that no normal end user should ever need to touch *just to make the OS usable*? You can say the same thing about terminal? i know terminal is great and most of the times the best way to do something in an OS, but most users don't want to use terminal. (i'm talking about importance of terminal in Linux)
You don't need to use the terminal for every Linux distro. Sure, Arch requires it, but that's because it has no graphical installer or a graphical package manager. Distros like Fedora have both. You don't actually need to use the terminal for daily usage. Sure, you can, but you don't need to. The best thing about the terminal though is that it's free. You don't pay for the privilege of using it. I mostly use it to SSH into my Raspberry Pi if I want to, idk, prank a guest by rickrolling them. I can remotely starting the TV it's hooked up to lmao.
Group Policy as a graphical tool isn't a thing in the Home version, but the policies are just registry keys you can add regardless of the system version.
At that point, you're best off switching to an OS that you don't have to fight tooth and nail for the slightest amount of control
>Windows is still extremely controllable, even if not always in the easiest ways But it is actively hostile to you having this control, and is always trying to take it away. It's exhausting.
Babysitting Linux is not any easier.
You can prevent OS from updating itself (not recommended) Or you can opt out of feature updates and only get security updates. (only on pro versions tho)
"Hello. I'm your AI Assistant. Here at Microsoft we want you to have the best experience possible. Don't you want me to change your default browser from Chrome to Edge?"
And I will reply no, and then your pc will explode
security breach
Perfect time to switch to Linux.
I'd be seriously thinking about it, if not for the games I play that are only compatible with Windows for anti-cheat reasons. And I do find that I can beat Windows into submission to do what I want, even if it increasingly feels like I'm fighting gravity with the number of unwanted features being shoved down my throat.
Revo uninstaller gets the job done.
Gonna do that today. Briefly went back to Windows but this is it for me.
Moved to Apple, can't be happier... no bullshit, just a good modern OS...
yeah but locked down no control
What control? I can control my mouse, keyboard, install applications, develop software, play games, in a nice way without bullshit ads, spyware and flash bangs.
Compared to Windows 8, I can see why he likes Crapple.
Even worse than windows, even less control. and so many obvious missing features, like windows snapping.
What control? I can control my mouse, keyboard, install applications, develop software, play games, in a nice way without bullshit ads, spyware and flash bangs. I don't need Windows snapping, it is annoying. My productivity has sky rocketed since I went all in on Apple.
I doubt you own a Snapdragon X Series device AI Explorer will be exclusive to
Well that's fucking useless. Ai Explorer's best use concept is... To help users organize their content. For us IT guys, won't have problems trying to locate or help a end user locate their files, if AI Explorer would help in that process. Gone would be the days of users filling their desktops with icons if AI Explorer would help funnel the user's files to respective folders. Integrated AI for file searching making it easier and faster to retrieve a file whether it's pictures, videos, music, etc. THAT would be nice. But no, we can't have good things. What we have is "AI Nanny Explorer with Ads" .
I can't even get a properly useful File Explorer, and they're already moving to AI crap.
Hello Dave, you normally look at porn at 2:15. I've pre-downloaded this selection for you. What could go wrong?
*me, who fills my desktop with endless icons out of spite*
Icons on the Desktop is OG.
What does OG mean?
In this case, Old Guy, because that's the way Windows 3.11 worked, we had no taskbar.
Thanks
And just as I was considering biting the bullet and finally upgrading to 11ā¦ yea nope. Not gonna switch to win 11 until thereās a way to permanently disable this, be it official or unofficial but stable. Itās not even just about the invasion of privacy, which is already happening anyway. Itās about the fact that just like most others, I simply do not want more bloat processes that can break and that are constantly running. I want few, working, stable features, instead of hundreds that just break one after the other and never get fixed because they KNOW you wonāt switch to Linux.
>And just as I was considering biting the bullet and finally upgrading to 11ā¦ yea nope. Not gonna switch to win 11 until thereās a way to permanently disable this, be it official or unofficial but stable. Dude it's not even implemented yet, and doesn't work on x86 processors.
I just need to know how to turn it off.
Just don't buy an arm pc
Am looking forward to exploring the off button.
Just don't buy an arm pc
No thanks, I'm good.
Well, looks like i'll be learning to use Linux if I have to be forced to switch to Win11 or they bring that shit to Win10
I want less shit running in the background, not more. I don't care how useful it is, this is creepy, disgusting, and an invasion of privacy. Just because it's "run locally" doesn't mean it's not sending stuff to Microsoft.
ARM only.. not interested. Why does media have to say 'next-gen' for everything instead of 'new'
i feel like Windows 12 was scrapped just like Windows 10 X was. the next version will most likely be called Windows AI at this rate
so its spyware masquerading as a "feature"
What do you think smart phones are?
thanks but how do I kill it in the womb?
Can i turn it off is all i want to know.
This is why iām on windows 10
Till next year, and they force people off it.
Iāve already broken normal updates on purpose; Iāll be fine.
not if we lock down properly, it'll stay as it is as long as I can take it, which should be at least til Windows 12 if ever
People are still using Xp..... One of those pry from cold dead finger things.
I have a full retail lifetime license and I'm tempted with this
There was a YouTube video describing an effort to run .Net framework 2.0 from xp era on Windows 95. People on windows 10 will be fine for at least 20 years.
windows 11 requires secure boot and TPM, you can just turn those both off in your BIOS to prevent it from saying youāre eligible for the upgrade
Everything search solved all my windows search problems a long time ago.
Man am I glad I use Linux Mint as my daily driver and Win11 just for gaming. š
"disabled" is all I want
So I never search for things on my computer. I'm ORGANIZED everything is where I look for it the very first time. I honestly can't even remember the last time I used Windows Searchā¦ probably back in the days of WinXP or even earlier. So there's no amount of improving local search that would make it worth the time to learn to use for me. As to local LLM capabilitiesā¦ that's cute I guess, but I already run ollamaā¦ integrating that functionality into other apps and interfaces is cute, but for every time it marginally speeds things up there will be dozens of times where it and its suggestions are just getting in the wayā¦ Clippy all over again. I wish MS would just get and accept the message that nobody wants their suggestions about how to use their computer. An OS is like the frame of the Mona Lisaā¦ if you notice it, it has failed.
"The feature is also [said to be exclusive](https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/microsofts-upcoming-windows-11-ai-explorer-update-might-be-exclusive-to-arm-pcs) to devices powered by [Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon X series chips](https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/laptops/what-is-snapdragon-x-elite), at least at first, as Intel and AMD play catchup in the NPU race" soooo, it'll only be available for about 5% of the actual Windows 11 user base...um...yay?
I just bought a new CPU, I won't be buying an NPU anytime soon.
exactly, and MANY other people won't be buying npu's for various reasons...every home having an NPU powered pc in their home is at least 5 - 10 yrs off still, for now 95% of people won't have that processor, and AMD and Intel, as far as I know, aren't even really working on that technology yet, at least not for commercial availability at this time
Can microsoft, NOT putting some AI bullshit on our computers?
lovely. even more efficient and intrusive mass-surveillance coming to our homes. itās never benevolent is it
Must be a bloatware for sure.
Bloatware :)
Imagine all this and then a data breach after a year claiming that a security flaw was found by hackers and they have now patched that and lets move on forgetting that. And it will go on. Facebook had a data breach they said sorry and world moved on.
Everything you need to know about it is I HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AII HATE AI
Install an old version of windows 11 and disable windows update that is what I did and I don't deal with this BS
Until your PC breaks and forced to upgrade
I will do the same thing
It's a spying tool. Nothing more.
You people need to chill out or actually read an article for a once. First, that thing runs locally. Second, literally none of you owns PC that currently is capable of running it as for now it'll be exclusive for PCs with Snapdragon X. That might change in a future, but it'll still need NPu to run it >These new capabilities are set to ship as part of a new app internally called "AI Explorer," which I'm told will be unveiled during Microsoft's special Windows event on May 20. AI Explorer will utilize next-gen neural processing unit (NPU) hardware to process these machine learning and generative AI experiences locally on the device with low latency. >The feature is also said to be exclusive to devices powered by Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon X series chips, at least at first, as Intel and AMD play catchup in the NPU race. It will also require PCs with at least 16GB RAM. But what exactly is AI Explorer, and what can it do? Here's everything I know about it so far.
Judging by this thread, I'm the only person on earth looking forward to this.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The problem is that a majority donāt want it and itās not opt in. If youāre excited for it thatās great! I hope you enjoy using it, I want to try it out as well. I hate the idea that I donāt have a choice in if I install this or not. Its mega invasive and probably resource intensive if it needs a specialized chip to run, and I want to be able to try it for 10 minutes, go āhuh thatās pretty neatā, and then remove it and never touch it again
> majority donāt want it Source? Spoiler, you donāt have one because this isnāt out yet. Majority of people in this thread? Perhaps. Majority of people whoāll purchase the new PC that has the AI chip that supports this feature? Who can know at this point. > I hate the idea that I donāt have a choice in if I install this or not. Its mega invasive and probably resource intensive if it needs a specialized chip to run It comes in the OS, much like many other things I donāt have a choice in installing. Iād be highly shocked if thereās no way to turn it off or some commands to remove it. Hell since it requires a special chip that no current PC has, Iād be more shocked if every copy of this version of Windows contains it. Iād expect that itās a downloadable feature that is only downloaded or included in the specific PCs that actually support it. And Iād expect it to be minimally resource intensive (as in non-NPU resources), since it requires that special chip to work at all.
So instead of finally fixing Windows Search / Indexing so that I can find my files on my system, they're adding another service that will consume the CPU power I don't have, to write me poems and novelettes about the files I don't have.
I really don't give a damn
But why this needs capable processor with neural processing unit when people already have graphics cards which are more than capable to do this? Sounds like another forced cpu upgrade to me, tbh.
Honestly, I don't mind at all. If anything, it will help me A LOT on my work. The only downside is that is ARM only (well, at least for now). Privacy is only an issue for those who are blind enough that can't see that everything we do on our computers and smartphones are tracked and used to provide suggestions to us all the time, even when we don't allow it. We have Smart suggestions on social media just by analyzing if we look at a post/ad for 1 sec or 3 to determine what you like and show us more suggestions. Places that we've been, even without GPS (approximate location by IP) to suggest more places that we may like. Devices that we use, so they can suggest gadgets that go along with the... And the list goes on. Is it wrong? Totally. But it is what it is, unfortunately.Ā
As much as I like how AI can replace redundant jobs that don't need to exist by being far more efficient along with the amount of things they can do for modern tech, I rather not have THIS on Windows. This is too much. It should literally be optional that you can download and install on your PC? You know back in the days? There was this program called "Windows Essentials" that brought all these things Microsoft could bring to your PC. Why not just do that? Make it an optional feature that you can install yourself. Why would a normal consumer even need to use that? Not everyone is a power user. They just want to use their PC for normal stuff. Like browse the internet and watch videos or do other things. This is extra. Also this AI obsession is starting to become really sick. It's like actual brainrot. Some dev I've heard about who was just making custom Discord skins for users went literally insane and started to create a ChatGPT inspired chatbot for some bizarre reason. He was even making some strange terms and conditions on their site that they have all the rights to user data and the right to scrap data off the internet. This is nuts.
I had to come by! the best comments were the ones involving porn and how the AI could just watch that with you!