What it’s good to know
- Microsoft has introduced that upcoming Home windows PCs shall be geared up with a devoted Copilot key.
- The Copilot key will act as a shortcut for opening the Home windows Copilot interface, which launched late final 12 months.
- The primary PCs with the Copilot key shall be introduced at CES 2024 subsequent week.
Microsoft has introduced what it is calling the “first important change to the Home windows PC keyboard in practically three a long time,” with the introduction of a brand new devoted Home windows Copilot AI {hardware} key that may ship on upcoming Home windows units beginning subsequent month.
Yusef Mehdi, Govt Vice President & Shopper Chief Advertising and marketing Officer at Microsoft says the corporate is making ready to usher in an period of extra private and clever computing pushed by AI experiences, which shall be seamlessly woven into Home windows throughout OS, apps, and silicon.
Actually, the corporate says 2024 would be the 12 months of the “AI PC.” To double down on this concept, it is introducing the Home windows Copilot key which can start delivery on new Home windows PCs beginning in February. The primary PCs with this new key are anticipated to be introduced as quickly as subsequent week at CES 2024.
Microsoft does verify that future Floor PCs can even embrace the brand new Copilot key, however no new Floor {hardware} bulletins are being made right this moment. We anticipate that the subsequent Floor PCs would be the Floor Professional 10 and Floor Laptop computer 6, with next-gen Intel and Arm chips, and a brand new design for the Floor Laptop computer line.
These new AI PCs may have that devoted Copilot key on the keyboard, generally positioned on the appropriate aspect of the keyboard the place the context menu secret’s normally located. Microsoft tells me that this new Copilot key shall be made obligatory for OEMs delivery Home windows PCs sooner or later within the close to future.
Microsoft says the Copilot key will make it straightforward for customers to invoke the Home windows Copilot interface, which we famous started displaying up for most individuals in our Home windows 11 model 23H2 evaluate final 12 months. For customers who haven’t got Copilot enabled, the Copilot key will merely open Home windows Search.
Home windows and AI are about to grow to be much more intertwined
Microsoft is gearing as much as ship a significant Home windows replace later this 12 months that may primarily give attention to delivering “next-gen” AI experiences throughout Home windows. In right this moment’s blogpost, Yusef Mehdi even teases that that is what Microsoft is engaged on for 2024:
“… we shall be ushering in a big shift towards a extra private and clever computing future the place AI shall be seamlessly woven into Home windows from the system, to the silicon, to the {hardware}.”
Microsoft has very huge plans for AI in Home windows this 12 months, together with a brand new AI Explorer that may make looking for apps and recordsdata extremely highly effective and straightforward, utilizing pure language and a brand new person historical past/timeline characteristic to seek out conversations, apps, and paperwork that you’ve got had on show prior to now.
I’ve already written about among the AI experiences you’ll be able to anticipate to see within the subsequent main Home windows replace, codenamed Hudson Valley, and it is honest to say the AI Copilot now we have right this moment is simply the beginning. Microsoft is all in on AI, and Home windows is subsequent on Microsoft’s checklist for an “AI improve.”
The corporate says 2024 is the 12 months of the AI PC, and that is all going to be enabled by new Home windows PCs and the upcoming Home windows Hudson Valley launch.
