As artificial intelligence becomes more and more prevalent modern day computing, Microsoft's new Copilot PCs bring powerful AI capabilities right to your fingertips. Equipped with specialized hardware and advanced software, these devices promise a faster, smarter experience. In this article, we'll explore what makes Copilot PCs stand out from the rest. To ensure that the advanced AI functions can be executed quickly and smoothly, Copilot PCs must meet certain hardware requirements. The most important criterion is the presence of a special neural processor (aka the NPU).

Everything to do with artificial intelligence has been the big IT hype of the past two years. Even if the initial enthusiasm for ChatGPT and others has now given way to a more sober assessment, there is hardly a software company at the moment that is not taking a close look at the possibilities of the technology. Microsoft in particular has invested huge sums in AI development and is demonstrating how AI can also be integrated into familiar programs: Gradually, more and more applications are being given functions that fulfill their tasks with the help of artificial intelligence. Microsoft has also released its Large Language Model (LLM) Copilot as its own app and browser extension. Other companies have now also embedded AI functions into apps, some of which are available for free.

It is beyond dispute that the potential benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) in military intelligence are considerable. Nevertheless, it remains uncertain precisely how AI can enhance the analysis of military data. The aim of this study is to address this issue. To this end, the AI demonstrator deepCOM was developed in collaboration with the start-up Aleph Alpha. The AI functions include text search, automatic text summarization and Named Entity Recognition (NER). These are evaluated for their added value in military analysis. It is demonstrated that under time pressure, the utilization of AI functions results in assessments clearly superior to that of the control group. Nevertheless, despite the demonstrably superior analysis outcome in the experimental group, no increase in confidence in the accuracy of their own analyses was observed. Finally, the paper identifies the limitations of employing AI in military intelligence, particularly in the context of analyzing ambiguous and contradictory information.

In the last two years, Microsoft has invested a lot of money in the ChatGPT inventor Open AI and in its own AI developments. Since then, Microsoft has been equipping more and more programs with artificial intelligence, above all the Edge browser and Office programs. But AI is also finding its way into Windows. In this article, we present the new AI functions in Windows, the Windows apps, and Microsoft 365. Microsoft's AI engine Copilot has been part of the operating system since Windows 11 23H2 for U.S. users, and is available via the Copilot app in the Microsoft Store for others.

Microsoft is currently adding AI functions to one application after another. The Edge browser has also received an AI update. However, not every user is happy about this. This is because the AI may transmit user data to Microsoft. For other users, these functions are nothing more than bloatware, i.e. superfluous extras that only waste memory and computing time.

AI-based systems possess distinctive characteristics and introduce challenges in quality evaluation at the same time. Consequently, ensuring and validating AI software quality is of critical importance. In this paper, we present an effective AI software functional testing model to address this challenge. Specifically, we first present a comprehensive literature review of previous work, covering key facets of AI software testing processes. We then introduce a 3D classification model to systematically evaluate the image-based text extraction AI function, as well as test coverage criteria and complexity. To evaluate the performance of our proposed AI software quality test, we propose four evaluation metrics to cover different aspects. Finally, based on the proposed framework and defined metrics, a mobile Optical Character Recognition (OCR) case study is presented to demonstrate the framework's effectiveness and capability in assessing AI function quality.

This paper examines the question of how generative AI can improve the well-being of blind or visually impaired people. It refers to a current example, the Be My Eyes app, in which the Be My AI feature was integrated in 2023, which is based on GPT-4 from OpenAI. The author's tests are described and evaluated. There is also an ethical and social discussion. The power of the tool, which can analyze still images in an amazing way, is demonstrated. Those affected gain a new independence and a new perception of their environment. At the same time, they are dependent on the world view and morality of the provider or developer, who prescribe or deny them certain descriptions. An outlook makes it clear that the analysis of moving images will mean a further leap forward. It is fair to say that generative AI can fundamentally improve the well-being of blind and visually impaired people and will change it in various ways.

So far, Microsoft has show AI living in the cloud. AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm want AI to live on the PC, powered by their own processors. Does that pose a potential conflict? At AMD's "Advancing AI" presentation, where the company launched the Ryzen 8040 family of AI-enhanced mobile processors, Microsoft's chief Windows executive said that cloud AI and local AI could coexist. Microsoft not only supplies licenses for millions of Windows machines, but also sells Microsoft 365 subscriptions to even more -- 76 million consumer subscribers, as of the current third calendar quarter of 2023, with commercial growth of 14 percent on top of that.

Microsoft is significantly expanding the functions of Paint in Windows 11. The app is also getting a new version. The outdated program is to become a modern image editor that also contains AI functions. In the future, you will be able to use the OpenAI-LLM Dall-E directly in Windows 11 and in Paint. The new functions are also available after installing the Microsoft Paint app from the App Store.

Microsoft is injecting a ton of generative AI-powered features into Windows 11, but it's not all about the Copilot assistant. The company has started to update a string of apps with new AI functions, including Paint, Clipchamp, Snipping Tool and Photos. Microsoft released an update for Windows 11 2023, known as 23H2, on October 31. That update expanded access to Copilot and other AI features. Microsoft is rolling out the AI updates gradually, so you may not have access to everything just yet.