Author | Yun Peng
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Zhidong reported on May 21 that in the early hours of this morning, Microsoft threw a bombshell into the entire AI PC market and released its latest and strongest "Copilot+PC".
微软称之为Windows PC中的"全新物种",Copilot也正式用上了OpenAI最新的GPT-4o。
The first Copilot+ PC is Microsoft's new Surface Pro, which is equipped with a Qualcomm Arm processor.
▲新款Surface Pro
Copilot+PC is not literally Copilot "plus" PC, but a PC with Copilot capabilities, which we can understand as "PCs with greatly enhanced AI capabilities".
It is worth mentioning that the PCs mentioned throughout Microsoft's press conference refer to laptop products, not desktop PCs.
▲图片来源：TheVerge
This time, Copilot+PC has added an amazing "Recall" function, similar to "going back in time", which is also the biggest highlight of the event.
▲图片来源：Moor Insights&Strategy
The AI can find "anything" you've ever done on the computer, as long as the screen shows you, the AI can help you find it! I have to say, this feature is really fantastic.
▲Recall function
For example, Copilot can find a pair of shoes that you saw on the browser a few days ago, and you can describe what the shoes look like directly to Copilot through natural language, and it can directly take you back to the moment the shoes appear on the screen.
▲ Use the Recall function to find your favorite shoes that you have browsed before
This recall function has a timeline, we can directly drag to find the exact time point we need, and we can also directly delete the content of AI records, or set a whitelist to block the Recall function for specific applications, all of which are processed on the device side and are not on the cloud.
▲Timeline of the Recall function
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella emphasized that Microsoft not only makes computers that understand our computers, but also predict what we want.
This is undoubtedly a key prediction given by Microsoft for the development of "AI PC", and it is also the "active AI" that is currently emphasized a lot in the industry.
▲微软CEO纳德拉，图片来源：Moor Insights&Strategy
So where is the Windows laptop cow for Copilot+PC? It has two core features: built-in AI hardware (NPU) and support for cross-system AI functions. These system-level AI capabilities span browsers, system settings, notifications, and a wide range of system applications.
For example, all the audio and video that is playing on the computer can be translated into more than 40 languages in real time.
▲System-level translation capabilities
For example, AI can help you find photos of your friends from previous trips.
▲System-level AI map search capability
At the same time, and most importantly, for the first time, Copilot has the ability to "read the screen", which can really understand what is displayed on our screen.
Copilot can now become a "game expert" and teach you how to make a sword while you play Minecraft. That's right, Copilot can directly see the inventory materials in the game you're playing.
▲Copilot helps users in the game "Minecraft", image source: TheVerge
In Microsoft's parlance, Copilot is contextual and visually aware, and it helps you handle whatever is going on your screen.
▲Copilot found a skirt that had been browsed before through the user's natural language description, image source: WindowsCentral
In addition, you can directly ask Copilot to help you analyze the files, tables, and data on your computer, and let Copilot help you summarize a document or draw a picture.
For Copilot+PC, Microsoft directly called it "the most powerful PC in the world", and I have to say that this word is "very Apple".
At the same time, Copilot on Copilot+PC will become your "daily AI companion", and the AI experience that Copilot+PC can achieve is "breakthrough".
▲The three core advantages of Copilot + PC, image source: WindowsCentral
Microsoft announced at the press conference that the first Copilot+ PC, that is, its latest Surface series, will be launched on June 18, and this laptop will be equipped with Qualcomm's Arm architecture processor, including Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus, two blockbuster self-developed SoCs, and the version with Intel and AMD chips will be released later.
▲Microsoft shows off the new Surface series, image source: TheVerge
According to Microsoft's official tests, the new Surface Pro has 58% better multi-threaded performance than Apple's MacBook Air 15, supports 22 hours of local video playback, and is also available in an OLED screen version.
It is worth noting that Microsoft has actually been promoting the construction of the Arm-based Windows PC ecosystem, but the actual performance can be said to have been sluggish, and the key change of AI PC is likely to become a key node in the rapid growth of Arm PC, and it will also become a key move for Microsoft to fight Apple.
Tomorrow's Microsoft Build conference is about to be held, and today Microsoft released a series of AI PC moves, which can be regarded as a sufficient warm-up for tomorrow's developer conference.
1. Microsoft has delineated the "passing line" of AI computing power, and AI can finally "read the screen" with more than 40 local large models for a PC
Next, let's break down the two major features of Copilot+PC in detail, including built-in NPU and system-level AI capabilities.
What is Built-in AI Hardware? To put it simply, there must be a neural network processor in the computer, which is what we often call NPU, and according to Microsoft's standards, the AI computing power of this NPU must reach 40 TOPS, which is likely to be the "entry passing line" of AI computing power for Windows AI PC in the future.
In addition to the built-in NPU, Microsoft has also made certain requirements for other hardware specifications of the Copilot+ PC, including 16GB of RAM and 256GB SSD.
▲图片来源：WindowsCentral
It is worth mentioning that the 16GB of RAM is already twice the starting memory configuration of the Apple MacBook Air.
What are cross-system AI capabilities? Let's take our time.
First of all, one of Microsoft's iconic features of Copilot+PC is "recall", or "recall", Microsoft calls it "Recall" function, AI can record everything you do and see on the computer in the form of images, and this function can be completely run on the device side, without the need to go to the cloud.
Note that in the real sense of everything you do, you can directly search for anything you have operated on your PC, such as a topic you have communicated with someone in a chat app, or even a PPT containing a specific content that you have just done, Copilot can directly help you find it.
▲图片来源：WindowsCentral
This recall function has a timeline, we can directly drag to find the exact time point we need, and directly pause, delete the content of the AI record, we can also set a whitelist to filter out specified applications or websites, so that the AI can't see it.
Of course, Copilot's "system-level AI" capabilities don't stop there, Copilot can also help you quickly set up complex Windows operating systems, edit specific files in File Explorer, or write replies to emails and notifications we receive.
The Photos app in Windows can directly "understand" the picture we are opening now, and recommend suggestions for modifying and editing the image accordingly.
▲图片来源：WindowsCentral
At the same time, all kinds of image generative AI functions can be implemented on Copilot+PC, such as AI erasure and AI painting to generate images with one click.
▲Image Creator
Microsoft mentioned that in order to implement this series of AI functions, each laptop may need to run more than 40 large models, and Microsoft's built-in AI assistant Copilot directly uses OpenAI's GPT-4o, which was just launched last week.
Microsoft specifically mentioned that these models are not simply "tied together", but are deeply integrated.
It is understood that one of the most intuitive ability improvements that GPT-4o brings to Copilot is that Copilot can really "understand your screen", so that Copilot can answer questions according to what you see on your screen.
It is worth mentioning that this "AI screen reading" function seems to have become a key "consensus" between Microsoft and Apple in building system-level AI capabilities, because Apple just released a related technical paper on understanding the content of mobile phone screens through large models on April 8 this year, which mentioned that Apple is trying to make AI understand every element on our mobile phone screen, from text, pictures, videos to the functions represented by various button diagrams.
▲苹果Ferret-UI: Grounded Mobile UI Understanding with Multimodal LLMs论文中的关键说明
This is very important because AI understands two things: what we are doing and what we are going to do.
This is a key part of realizing the idea of "AI agent" in our minds, and it is the basic technology that AI can truly realize "active intelligence", and AI knows what we are doing and what we are going to do, so that it can better provide us with service advice.
Second, Microsoft teamed up with Qualcomm to create an Arm PC called Apple, AI capabilities and battery life skyrocketed, as well as OLED screens
Previously, Apple's M4 chip claimed to "hang" all AI PCs, and today Microsoft is taking the move head-on, full of gunpowder.
Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's head of Windows business, said directly at the launch event that the new Copilot+ PC laptop is 58% faster than the MacBook Air with the M3 chip.
Microsoft demonstrated live how its new Surface laptop can be used for batch photo editing at the same time as the MacBook Air M3, with the former being nearly twice as fast as the processing speed.
▲新款Surface与MacBook Air M3对比Photoshop AI生图能力，来源：KTLA
Not only is the performance strong, but in terms of the short battery life of Windows laptops, he said that Copilot+ PC can achieve "all-day use" battery life.
In particular, the Copilot+ PC, which uses a Qualcomm Arm processor, can directly browse the web for 15 hours in one go.
However, Mehdi did not say whether "all" Copilot+ PCs can achieve this battery life, or whether it can only be achieved by models that use Arm processors, which is of great concern to everyone, because the "hardest hit area" of poor battery life of Windows laptops has always been the x86 processor version.
Specifically, let's take a look at the new products and important upgrades of Microsoft's Surface product line. The new Surface Pro replaces Intel's Core Ultra processors with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus, which are 90% faster than the previous generation, and for the first time, an OLED screen is used. The new 13-inch Surface Pro starts at $999, and the X Elite and OLED screen versions start at $1499.
▲新款Surface Pro
I have to say that although the double-layer OLED used on Apple's iPad Pro has an amazing effect, Apple is slower than Samsung, Google, and Microsoft in terms of the speed of OLED screens, flooring tablets, and laptops.
The new Surface Standard Edition is also available with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus versions, the standard version has narrower bezels than the previous generation, and the trackpad also has a new design, which Microsoft says is more than 80% faster than the previous generation, and supports 22 hours of local video playback.
▲新款Surface标准版
The new Surface Standard Edition is available in 13.8-inch and 15-inch options and starts at $999.
At today's press conference, Microsoft not only introduced its Surface products as the first batch of Copilot+ PCs, but also announced that Lenovo, Dell, HP, Acer, and Asus, the world's five top Windows PC giants, will release new Copilot+ PC products.
▲图片来源：Moor Insights&Strategy
At the level of application ecology, Microsoft is also working with software giants such as Adobe to optimize the experience of these applications on Copilot+PC, and today Adobe's Photoshop, Lightroom, Firefly and Express, the Arm64 version of several head applications, was officially released on Copilot+PC.
▲图片来源：WindowsCentral
In addition, Microsoft also announced that popular productivity apps such as Leonardo da Vinci, CapCut, Cephable, QuiidText, and Djay Pro will also support more new AI features in Copilot+PC.
▲CapCut
All of this has undoubtedly greatly improved the performance and experience of Arm PCs in terms of productivity.
Microsoft specifically mentions that 87% of existing Arm PC applications are native Arm versions.
It is worth noting that Microsoft has actually been promoting the construction of the Arm-based Windows PC ecosystem, but the actual performance can be said to have been sluggish, and the key change of AI PC is likely to become a key node in the rapid growth of Arm PC, and it will also become a key move for Microsoft to fight Apple.
The important industry significance is self-evident, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is revolutionary and subversive.
Conclusion: The smell of gunpowder is getting stronger and stronger, and the AI PC industry is surging
Microsoft directly defined the release of Copilot+PC today as "the beginning of a new era of Windows laptops", which shows the importance and high expectations of Microsoft. At present, one of the key consensus of the smart terminal industry is that AI must be "system-level", and Microsoft, as the undoubted brother of the PC operating system, is obviously the core promoter of accelerating the development of AI PC, or even one of them.
This time, Microsoft has given AI the ability to understand users and predict user needs, and at the same time integrated this AI capability into the underlying layer of the system, and can be implemented locally, which has "set a sample" for the development of AI PCs. At the same time, Microsoft's vigorous promotion at the AI application ecosystem level has also further accelerated the improvement of the AI PC application ecosystem.
Google gave a sample of AI Android phones at the I/O conference, and Microsoft provided a "template" for AI Windows PCs, obviously, Apple is going to appear next, how Apple can do a good job of AI on iPhone and Mac, and establish its own competitive advantage in the AI war, is undoubtedly the biggest test for Apple.
Next, the pressure goes to Apple.