Microsoft's Copilot button is the key to the AI race
Plus NPU and Recall
On Monday the 20th, Microsoft announced Copilot+ PCs, a range of PCs specifically designed for AI. The line up of devices includes Microsoft’s own Surface and OEM partners including Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung.
In this article, I outline why I believe the Copilot+ PCs will be the key to Microsoft leading in the AI race.
Microsoft's Copilot button is the key to the AI race
A key feature of the new Copilot+ PCs is the Copilot key.
From the Windows blog back in January this year
The introduction of the Copilot key marks the first significant change to the Windows PC keyboard in nearly three decades. We believe it will empower people to participate in the AI transformation more easily. The Copilot key joins the Windows key as a core part of the PC keyboard and when pressed, the new key will invoke the Copilot in Windows experience to make it seamless to engage Copilot in your day to day
This unassuming key addresses two challenges when rolling out new technology: 1) fostering adoption and 2) achieving scale.
Fostering Adoption
Despite what tech Twitter would have you believe, the majority of people are not using AI on a regular basis. Encouraging users to adopt a new technology is challenging because people are naturally resistant to change and they default to their current behaviours.
But having a dedicated Copilot key significantly increases the chances of users adopting Copilot. It’s simple, straightforward, and leverages an existing behaviour familiar to virtually every computer user.
Achieving Scale
Once a new technology starts getting adoption, the next challenge is achieving scale. To that extent, Microsoft “expects to sell 50 million units before the end of the year through a variety of manufacturers”1. Obviously, I don’t expect all 50 million users to use the Copilot key, however, it’s a very healthy base to activate.
It's worth noting that ChatGPT and Gemini have a strong lead in terms of daily active users (DAU). Trying to obtain accurate DAU numbers has been tricky, so I resorted to asking Gemini which provided the answer below.
ChatGPT has around 14.3 million daily users, while Gemini has around 4.6 million daily users.
Neural Processing Unit (NPU)
The new Copilot+ PCs will feature a Neural Processing Unit (NPU). According to Microsoft, the NPU will provide the following advantages:
It processes large amounts of data in parallel, performing trillions of operations per second.
It uses less power and is far more efficient at AI tasks than a CPU or GPU.
It excels at AI tasks and frees your CPU and GPU up for other tasks. Combining an NPU with machine learning gives you a powerful combo.
It provides lightning-fast, high-bandwidth AI in real time—a great advantage for using voice commands, creating images quickly, and more.
It will be interesting to see if NPUs have any impact on Nvidia’s dominance over GPUs.
Total Recall
Thanks to the powerful NPU, Copilot+ PCs are able to run Microsoft’s new AI powered tool called Recall.
Now with Recall, you can access virtually what you have seen or done on your PC in a way that feels like having photographic memory. Copilot+ PCs organize information like we do – based on relationships and associations unique to each of our individual experiences. This helps you remember things you may have forgotten so you can find what you’re looking for quickly and intuitively by simply using the cues you remember.
In the product video below, we can see the prompt “Find the site with the white sneakers” being used. The actor scrolls through a timeline bar and finds the site he was after.
As expected, there are privacy concerns being raised about Recall. Microsoft is stressing that Recall is stored locally on your PC and that users will have full control of their privacy.
Recall leverages your personal semantic index, built and stored entirely on your device. Your snapshots are yours; they stay locally on your PC. You can delete individual snapshots, adjust and delete ranges of time in Settings, or pause at any point right from the icon in the System Tray on your Taskbar. You can also filter apps and websites from ever being saved. You are always in control with privacy you can trust.
From a productivity point of view, the fact that Recall can tap into “your personal semantic index”, means it could help your streamline your personal daily workflow.
Recall’s biggest advantage is being able to recall everything a user does on the device, something no other AI company can right now.
