SEATTLE, May 21 — Microsoft on Monday debuted a new category of personal computers with AI features as it rushes to build the emerging technology into products across its business and compete with Alphabet and Apple.
At an event on its campus in Redmond, Washington, chief executive Satya Nadella introduced what Microsoft calls 'Copilot+' PCs, saying that it and a range of manufacturers would sell them, including Acer and Asustek Computer.
Microsoft launched the laptops as its shares trade near record highs following a Wall Street rally driven by expectations that AI will fuel strong profit growth for the company and its Big Tech rivals.
Able to handle more artificial-intelligence tasks without calling on cloud data centers, the new computers will start at US$1,000 (RM4,700) and begin shipping on June 18.
The ability to crunch AI data directly on the computer lets Copilot+ include a feature called 'Recall'. Recall tracks everything done on the computer, from Web browsing to voice chats, creating a history stored on the computer that the user can search when they need to remember something they did, even months later.
The company also demonstrated its Copilot voice-assistant acting as a real-time virtual coach to a user playing the Minecraft video game.
Yusuf Mehdi, who heads up consumer marketing for Microsoft, said the company expects that 50 million AI PCs will be purchased over the next year. At the press event, he said faster AI assistants that run directly on a PC will be "the most compelling reason to upgrade your PC in a long time".
Global PC shipments dipped about 15per cent to 242 million last year, according to research firm Gartner, which suggests Microsoft expects the new category of computers to account for around one-fifth of all PCs sold.
The Copilot+ marketing category is reminiscent of the 'Ultrabook' category of thin-form Windows laptops that Intel promoted with PC manufacturers in 2011 to compete against Apple's MacBook Air.
Microsoft executives also said that GPT-4o, the latest technology from ChatGPT maker OpenAI, will "soon" be available as part of Copilot.
— Reuters
