Microsoft rolls out AI updates for classic Windows apps to Insiders
Microsoft has released a new build to the Windows 11 Insider channels Dev and Canary. These introduce new AI capabilities in the classic Windows apps Paint and Notepad.
The details:
- Notepad is getting a text rewrite option.
- Paint is getting generative fill and erase.
- Paint is also getting updates to Cocreator and Image Creator.
Notepad: new AI-powered Rewrite feature
Notepad, the classic text editor of Windows, is getting rewriting capabilities that are powered by artificial intelligence. We reviewed these back in January 2024 when news about the feature broke.
These appear to be similar to the Copilot rewriting options that Microsoft is offering elsewhere. When you highlight text in Notepad, you get the option to have it changed by AI.
Options include changing the size of the text, e.g., making it longer, adjusting the tone, or the format.
Microsoft notes that you may use the feature either by selecting Rewrite from the context menu or with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + I.
The AI generates three versions of the text based on your selection. These can be modified by making changes to the available text options.
Note that you cannot give text instructions; all you can do is make modifications to size, tone and format to get different rewrites. Microsoft is also applying content filtering "to ensure that the generated text is free from harmful, offensive, or inappropriate material".
Microsoft notes that the feature is in preview at the moment. It is only available for users who are signed in with a Microsoft account and reside n the following regions: United States, France, UK, Canada, Italy, and Germany. Users from these regions get 50 credits for rewrites.
Users from Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand who have a Microsoft 365 Personal and Family account or a Copilot Pro subscription, may use the feature by spending AI credits directly.
Microsoft Paint new AI features
Microsoft Paint is getting a number of AI-powered features. Generative fill enables you to add content to existing images using text instructions.
Microsoft shows an example of a castle being added to a landscape using the feature. The company writes: "With generative fill, you can make edits and additions with just a few words while maintaining the existing art style of your project.".
- To use the tool, you need to make a selection on the image using the Selection tool.
- Once done, select the generative fill option from the menu that pops up.
- Enter text instructions and hit the create button to use the feature.
The AI creates content based on the provided instruction. If you are not satisfied, hit "try again" to get a different creation. When you are satisfied, press the keep button to apply it to the canvas.
This feature is limited to Copilot+ PCs and users need to be signed in with a Microsoft account.
Generative erase
The second addition helps with the removal of objects on images. It is available as part of the Eraser tool in Paint.
- Select the Generative erase option while the Eraser tool is selected.
- Use the Erase Brush to select content that you want removed from the image.
- Select the apply button to start the removal process.
Options provided include "add area to erase" or "reduce area to erase". Erase options are also available when selecting the rectangular or free-form selection tools.
The erase option is available for all Windows 11 PCs.
Updates to Cocreator and Image Creator
Cocreator, a tool designed to help you create artwork by entering a text prompt, should "deliver better results faster" now according to Microsoft.
It reacts to your drawings on the canvas and creates content based on it. This experience is only available on Copilot+ PCs.
Image Creator, a tool to instruct AI to generate an image based on a text prompt, is now available in additional markets.
What is your take on these AI features? Anything that you would use, if it would be available on your devices? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
The things Microsoft has done to Windows are utterly disgusting. Now you need credits and a subscription to use Notepad features? Why isn’t this processed locally?
Hopefully, everyone who believed it was a good idea will be fired when all this AI nonsense fails in 2025. It’s time Microsoft gave up on Windows 11 and build a proper operating system again, much like Windows 7.
Just putting in a I told you so.
Referring to a comment I made a while back about the old stuff being replaced and eventually removed, leaving you beached without a (billable) ms account in the long run.
Bit sooner than anticipated, but I suppose they have been encouraged by the election results.
You are going to be forced into “ai” tools. Because this is a excuse to ferret a copy of your stuff off to some datacenter somewhere. At first it will be free, because they so badly want more training data and saying NO will not be a option under the TOS/EULA (or EULU as I prefer to call it, being a ultimatum not an agreement).
But monetization will come.
They will take all your stuff, they will claim is it legal since you “agree” to it, they will also get you to pay for it.
To paraphrase a Ubisoft person: you will effectively own nothing that is digital/IP begin done with their software/website/cloud, having “signed” the granting of full rights to everything to them.
Politicians and courts have sold us all out, high and low, individual and business, by not regulating and enforcing in the TOS/EULA field.
Second using Notepad ++ as default text editor in Win11. “New” Notepad had hidden settings I had to Google to turn off, and now AI. No thanks. Always had NP++ around but liked the simplicity of “Old” Notepad so used it as default. No more.
#1 Why are you calling it classic when it’s a brand new app on 11?
#2 Anything M.$ adds AI to I will stop using if I can not disable the AI.
AI features… Like hens with no heads.
It’s rather a stampede with no leader.
Seems as if tech companies really start to panic or to believe their own hype bullshit or both.
While AI is in principle is not a bad thing per se, the current hype around GAN is unbelievably dumb and burning huge amounts of shareholder money.
While there certainly are some limited options to use GAN incl. LLMs to make money, they will mostly be limited to the media industry, and possibly parts of the service industry.
But finding a business model that’s driven by LLMs is quite hard if you are not in that kind of industry. How hard ? Just look at eg OpenAI (or any other pure AI-Company, how fast they are burning cash and what they current annual EBITDA is. The only one who is currently really making some dough is Nvidea and other hardware/data center/cloud providers.
It gets even worse, when people start talking about AGI … those people either don’t understand anything about about NNs or real Neuroscience or have an vested interest in increasing the hype.
That a guy like Hinton, who is in principle highly intelligent is also naive enough (I refuse to believe that he does this for personal gain) to fall for that shit, just shows that he doesn’t have the slightest clue, how a natural neural network actually works, and just how different it is from the simplistic and flawed principles an ANN is based upon.
Just throwing more processing power and training data at an ANN, as is it’s the current approach, won’t get you any AGI (just like throwing lots of iron ore on a heap won’t get you magically an aircraft carrier with lots of shiny F-18s in it).
As long as the human connectome hasn’t be analyzed, which will take some time, in order to artificially simulate it (which is the most promising approach, as long as we don’t understand the principles of how it actually works), there won’t any AGI.
Remember, it’s possible to make Notepad++ look and operate pretty close to traditional Notepad and you can use it as a plain text editor replacement for Notepad.
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/
From the screenshot: “Ai-generated content may be incorrect”.
Yes, and it’s not fixable. Microsoft are also using this generative AI junk to pollute Bing, which affects not just Bing, but the vast majority of other search engines – as they use Bing behind-the-scenes.
Can we just fast-forward to the part where generative AI goes the same route as 3D TVs and NFTs.