It occurred to me this morning that I will soon explain to a friend or family member what an “AI PC” is and what they should do with it.
The answer seems obvious to me because I have been covering AI and PC for decades. But as I try to articulate the meaning, I stumble:
- “A smarter PC?”
- “A more proactive PC”?
- “A PC with 'She' inside”?
None of that comes close to capturing it. What makes the most sense is this:
“A PC that works as promised when we started using computing.”
Instead of a dense box filled with information, memories, and apps that can cover everything, it's a wonderful box that anticipates your intentions, takes action on your behalf, and never leaves you wondering, “How do I do that?”
It's true that the AI PCs you'll see this summer aren't that yet. However, there will be hints of that power and potential.
Microsoft's one-button Copilot access to the new Surface Windows PCs it already makes countless of its partners' laptops and desktops isn't just marketing gimmicks. Initially, the Copilot button could be considered a “button when all else fails.” If you press it, Copilot might come to your rescue because it allows you to ask your question in a way that makes sense to you. An AI PC will know itself like you know yourself. It will know more than you about your computer's inner workings, settings, and AI-enabled apps, and may not force you to sift through apps, settings, and menus to get results.
this could be better
Any app's menu system is a developer's best guess about the intentions of millions of users, and when you try to satisfy everyone, you usually satisfy no one.
AI-embedded machines will surpass the rudimentary intelligence of the average PC and applications with something resembling human reasoning. This act could make your PC the digital partner you always wanted. Unlike small AI devices like Rabbit R1 and Humane AI, they won't insist that you learn a new usage paradigm. These AI PCs look just like your old PCs, meaning you can use them however you want, however you're happy, and take advantage of that new AI superpower as needed.
If my friends and family are also asking how the PC can be so smart, where all that intelligence resides, and if every question they ask ends up in the hands of a third party, that's when the conversation might get a little more complicated.
When analyzing this complex topic, I would explain that most AI PCs will take a half and half approach. Some of the intelligence will be there, in the new AI Brain or NPU, but the rest could reside on cloud servers owned by Microsoft, Apple or even Google. Choosing your new AI PC will depend on who you trust to keep your queries private.
I'm also pretty sure this explanation will hold up next month when Apple introduces its own AI-enabled Macs (they're also PCs, by the way).
Yes, this is what I will say if someone asks me.
