What are Copilot+ PCs, and what can AI do on your own computer?

Yesterday, Monday, May 20, 2024, Microsoft introduced Copilot+ PCs, which it describes as a new category of Windows computers designed for AI. Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, called them a new class of Windows PCs. The announcement came at a special event on Microsoft's new campus, a day before Build, its yearly conference for developers.

The core idea is simple. Until now, most AI features you have used, from ChatGPT to Microsoft's own Copilot assistant, run in the cloud: your request travels over the internet to large computers in a data center, and the answer comes back. Copilot+ PCs are built to run more of that work on the laptop itself.

What Microsoft announced

The first wave includes the new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop from Microsoft, plus models from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung. Pre-orders opened yesterday. The machines arrive in stores on June 18, starting at $999.

Here is what a PC needs to carry the Copilot+ label, according to Engadget's report from the event:

Requirement	Minimum	What it means
NPU performance	40 TOPS	The AI chip can do 40 trillion simple calculations per second
Memory (RAM)	16 GB	Working space for apps and AI models running at once
Storage	256 GB	Room for files, apps and the models themselves

For comparison, Engadget notes that other "AI PCs" on the market manage about 10 TOPS. The first Copilot+ PCs use Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips, whose NPU reaches 45 TOPS. Microsoft says machines with chips from Intel and AMD will follow.

How it works: the NPU

A computer has long had two main processors. The CPU (central processing unit) handles general tasks, one step after another. The GPU (graphics processing unit) handles many small calculations at once, which is why it is good at graphics and AI. Copilot+ PCs add a third: the NPU, or neural processing unit, a chip designed specifically for the math inside AI models, and built to do it using little power.

An analogy helps. The CPU is a skilled all-round worker, the GPU is a large team that is fast but hungry for electricity, and the NPU is a specialist who does one kind of job very efficiently. Giving AI tasks to the specialist frees the others and saves battery.

Microsoft says Copilot+ PCs pair the large models running in its Azure cloud with small language models, compact AI models that fit and run on the device. Engadget reports that Windows will include a new layer, the Windows Copilot Runtime, with more than 40 AI models built in.

Running AI locally brings three advantages, Microsoft argues: answers come faster because nothing travels over the internet, there is no cloud cost for each request, and personal data can stay on the machine.

The new AI features

Recall is the headline feature. Windows takes regular snapshots of what appears on your screen and builds a searchable index of them on your computer. Later you can describe what you remember ("the blue chart in a slideshow last week") and scroll a timeline to find it. Microsoft says the snapshots and index are stored only on the device, that you can delete snapshots, pause Recall or exclude apps and websites, and Engadget reports that Microsoft will not use Recall data to train its AI models.

Cocreator in Paint turns a rough sketch plus a short text description into a finished image in near real time, with a slider from literal to more expressive. The Photos app gains ways to restyle your pictures and generate new images on the device.

Live Captions can now translate audio from more than 40 languages into English subtitles, in real time, in any app, even offline.

The Copilot assistant also becomes a full app, opened with a dedicated Copilot key, and Microsoft says it will gain access to OpenAI's GPT-4o in the coming weeks for more natural voice conversations.

Try it: List three AI tasks you do often, such as summarizing documents, editing photos or captioning videos. For each one, write whether you would rather it ran on your own computer or in the cloud, and why. Your answers show how much on-device AI is really worth to you.

Why it matters

This announcement moves Windows toward AI that lives on your computer rather than only in a browser tab. It is also a bet on Arm chips, the energy-efficient design used in phones, which Windows has supported with mixed success before. Microsoft says it rebuilt Windows 11 for Arm and created Prism, a translation layer that lets older programs written for Intel-style chips run. It claims up to 22 hours of video playback on a charge and faster sustained performance than Apple's 15-inch MacBook Air; independent tests will tell.

Engadget points out that this follows a pattern already seen on flagship phones, which handle many AI tasks on the device, and that Apple is widely expected to make its own AI announcements at its developer conference next month.

Recall will draw the most questions. A feature that records much of what you do on screen offers real convenience and asks for real trust, even when the data stays local.

Should you buy a Copilot+ PC, or wait?

If your current laptop works well, there is no rush. The machines arrive June 18, and reviews will soon show whether the battery and speed claims hold up and how well your everyday programs run on the new Arm chips. Check that any specialized software you depend on, such as accounting, design or school tools, runs on Arm-based Windows or works well through Prism.

If you are replacing an old computer anyway, a Copilot+ PC is worth considering, since it meets the new minimums for Microsoft's on-device AI features, and models with Intel and AMD chips are also on the way. Whatever you choose, look at Recall's settings on the first day: decide which apps and websites it should never capture, and remember that you can pause or delete it at any time.