Dell shows off how Windows Copilot can navigate settings for you, if Microsoft decides...

[Daniel Sims]

In context: Microsoft has been teasing its new AI assistant's future capabilities throughout 2023, but the full range of use cases remain somewhat vague. Dell is offering some of the most vivid showcase of how Copilot could leverage NPUs to help ordinary users, however this is not an official Microsoft showcase but Dell's interpretation of what they could achieve.

Gizmodo recently witnessed a demonstration from Dell showcasing Windows 11 Copilot helping find and change settings. The animated presentation indicates one way an AI assistant could facilitate interface navigation as PCs with Neural Processing Units (NPUs) begin to emerge.

In one example (watch below), a user asks Microsoft's chatbot how to change the trackpad's brightness. A brightness slider immediately appears in the chat window, and manipulating it alters the brightness of the trackpad's backlit icons.

A second video demonstrates how Copilot can change power settings when the user requests adjustments to make the PC run at its fastest. The chatbot then estimates the remaining battery power under the new settings.

Prior information about Windows 11's upcoming generative AI integration included an example where a user could ask Copilot to retrieve a specific file they recently received from a specific person in a particular app, like WhatsApp, or for graphics driver details without digging through menus. Other context-sensitive queries could fundamentally change how users navigate Windows.

Dell said Copilot could also perform specific actions automatically depending on the situation, like changing network security settings when logged into public WiFi, engaging battery-saving mode when unplugged, or shutting down programs that crash when Windows starts. The AI will notify users when taking these steps and reverse them if asked. The new AI could bring attention to many useful but hidden features.

The range of AI applications could extend far beyond what Dell showcased. Microsoft previously suggested that NPUs could reduce reliance on cloud servers when running generative AI models, and the processors could facilitate AI application development.

An early version of Copilot is available now as an app for Windows and Android. However, reports indicate that an upcoming revision of Windows – which may or may not be called Windows 12 – will strengthen it using the AI chips in new processors like the Meteor Lake series or the Qualcomm Snapdragon X. The technology could arrive with next-generation Surface laptops debuting sometime in 2024.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/101361-dell-demonstrates-how-windows-11-copilot-can-easily.html

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Great, so we will have even more users with just enough knowledge to break their machines but not the knowledge how it occurred or how to fix it. Let's stop hiding how the OS operates and start teaching users how to have control over their PC already!

 

[Manu Arg]

This feels like buying a hummer to only use it on Saturday for groceries shopping.

 

[Nobina]

Microsoft loves to mess around with multiple versions of Control Panel so that users can't find anything any more. If this works, they will solve a problem they have created.

 

[OortCloud]

Microsoft loves to mess around with multiple versions of Control Panel so that users can't find anything any more. If this works, they will solve a problem they have created.

Except as with every generation of settings MS will only bother to port a subset of the previous settings they ported from the OS before so we end up with yet another different tier of settings that can be changed in this way while we have to go to various legacy applications etc for other stuff. They never do the job properly and update all the settings to be in one place because they only have 100,000 developers and apparently they are incapable of getting their OS in order and nowadays are far too busy messing around to do the groundwork.

 

[Nobina]

Except as with every generation of settings MS will only bother to port a subset of the previous settings they ported from the OS before so we end up with yet another different tier of settings that can be changed in this way while we have to go to various legacy applications etc for other stuff. They never do the job properly and update all the settings to be in one place because they only have 100,000 developers and apparently they are incapable of getting their OS in order and nowadays are far too busy messing around to do the groundwork.

They have a design identity crisis, it seems.

 

[umeng2002]

Co-pi-lot... How use com-poo-tar... [drools]

[AI voice] I am deleting system32. Press the confirm button when prompted.

 

[MasterAce]

I’m just curious how these tiny NPUs can help or is it just another marketing term…

 

[Theinsanegamer]

They have a design identity crisis, it seems.

It likely just boils down to legacy code, all the components left in control panel likely cannot be moved without breaking critical functions of windows, drivers, or the win32 api, and the guys who DID know how to fix it either retired years ago or were laid off so a new generation of DEI (and, more importantly, foreign, so they can be paid far cheaper H1B wages, but that has negative contentions so we need to call it something new and shiny) contractors who cant tell a codebase from spaghetti and get replaced every 18 months anyway.

I’m just curious how these tiny NPUs can help or is it just another marketing term…

It's marketing. Its ALL marketing. Always has been.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

I install Windows Pro for a reason, I don't need hand holding. Leave that crap to Home version for noobs but it should not be part of pro or enterprise offerings.

 

[Dr Roboto]

As others have stated, they (MS) are offering a solution that they created.

Just the other day I was trying to set a static IP, and what a pain to find the actual location. So many layers of crap to get to it. Ugh. Sometimes I miss the old day of the everything just being in the control center.

However, I am intrigued by the concept of striping away every layer of GUI and having just a flat, simple API for everything. Literally everything in one place. For power users, you can just go directly to what you want. More importantly, most users would just use CoPilot (AI) as the interface. Just tell it what you want it to do, and it would do it for you. For example: I want to adjust the brightness, and a slider would show up. Turn the brightness up 10%, and then it would do it for you. Literally, you would just tell it what you want it to do, and it would do it for you. That is the kind of AI that I would want.

 

[mbk34]

I don't understand why you need AI to do this. You just have text associated with each control setting and then search the text for the control required. Maybe have links to other related control settings and perhaps the option of calling an associated routine when done. There's certainly no need for dedicated AI processing.

 

[Dr Roboto]

I don't understand why you need AI to do this. You just have text associated with each control setting and then search the text for the control required. Maybe have links to other related control settings and perhaps the option of calling an associated routine when done. There's certainly no need for dedicated AI processing.

The value of a Large Language Model (LLM) is that it can handle natural language queries and you don't have to search for the exact correct search terms. People that are not as technically literate can ask questions and still get answers, even more so the LLM allows you to chat with it until you get you exact situation resolved.

For my example with the static IP address, I should just be able to say "I want to set my computer to have a static IP of 192.168.1.12" and the LLM would have the ability to not only find the correct configuration item, but it would also set it for me. It could then ask me what subnet mask I want to use, and then it would provide me suggestions on the correct one to use and just as importantly which one is best for my situation. That is the power of LLMs, not just "searching" for things. It's an assistant in helping you get the job done.

 

[mbk34]

The value of a Large Language Model (LLM) is that it can handle natural language queries and you don't have to search for the exact correct search terms. People that are not as technically literate can ask questions and still get answers, even more so the LLM allows you to chat with it until you get you exact situation resolved.

For my example with the static IP address, I should just be able to say "I want to set my computer to have a static IP of 192.168.1.12" and the LLM would have the ability to not only find the correct configuration item, but it would also set it for me. It could then ask me what subnet mask I want to use, and then it would provide me suggestions on the correct one to use and just as importantly which one is best for my situation. That is the power of LLMs, not just "searching" for things. It's an assistant in helping you get the job done.

I see what you're saying but I don't see why a more simple search couldn't produce the same results. In your case you'd be looking for "[static] [IP|network|address]" and then run an associated routine that allows you to enter an address and then pick your subnet mask. With either method, I'm not sure how you'd get the user to change the router settings so their static ip doesn't get overwritten. I suspect it's the underlying complexity of making such changes that needs to be fixed first.

 

[PurpaFur]

As long as they provide an easy way to disable Copilot through GPO or similar, I don't mind it in the slightest. Just don't force IT professionals to have to deal with users with the power of AI at their disposal. Things are difficult enough as it is.

 

[umeng2002]

That's always the issue. As long as you are given an option to really disable it, no one would mind; but MS has shown in the past that they make it impossible or as hard as possible to disable these features.