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Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

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Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#11

>Agent workspace is a separate, contained Windows session made just for AI agents, where they get their own account, desktop, and permissions so they can click, type, open apps, and work on your files in the background while you keep using your normal desktop. Instead of letting an agent act directly as you, Windows spins up this extra workspace, gives it limited access (like specific folders such as Documents or Des…

It is only a matter of time before recall is shipped quietly in an update

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#12

>Agent workspace is a separate, contained Windows session made just for AI agents, where they get their own account, desktop, and permissions so they can click, type, open apps, and work on your files in the background while you keep using your normal desktop. Instead of letting an agent act directly as you, Windows spins up this extra workspace, gives it limited access (like specific folders such as Documents or Des…

I disagree that the headline is clickbaity. It's true. The agents run in the background and have access to your personal data.

I don't care how "auditable" an agent is, I don't want my personal information slurped up by AI and shipped out to microsoft's servers. Full stop.

This is just another spying data exfiltration but with a hype con built into it.

Just because I can see what it read and shipped off, doesn't mean I can undo that or claw it back.

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#13
post #6
post #2

I can't tell you how mutch I don't want this! I know there will be some smart arse out there saying "Just install Linux" Pleas don't I have to use a screenreader called NVDA to read the screen to me as I am blind. There is a screen reader in Linux but it just is not that good. If it was better then I would think about it. I have tried!

[flagged]

Sure, which version of Wayland will they get stuck with?

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#15
post #14

Mmh, I've always wanted my gaming PC to run a useless background agent to eat up CPU cycles that could have been used for my game. Oh well, if I didn't want that, I could just consider using a Steam Machine, which Valve just announced.

for real

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#16
post #2

I can't tell you how mutch I don't want this! I know there will be some smart arse out there saying "Just install Linux" Pleas don't I have to use a screenreader called NVDA to read the screen to me as I am blind. There is a screen reader in Linux but it just is not that good. If it was better then I would think about it. I have tried!

It's a real pain that accessibility features are always integrated into proprietary OSes first. Like the live captioning feature in Windows 11 (for the hearing impaired), it wouldn't be hard to implement it on Linux with Whisper, but it still hasn't been done.

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#17
post #4
post #2

I can't tell you how mutch I don't want this! I know there will be some smart arse out there saying "Just install Linux" Pleas don't I have to use a screenreader called NVDA to read the screen to me as I am blind. There is a screen reader in Linux but it just is not that good. If it was better then I would think about it. I have tried!

I am immensely sorry to hear your experience. What is lacking? I totally believe you that this is the case, I'm sorry.

Everything is lacking.

Wayland hasn't even stabilised their accessibility hooks, and in the name of privacy have undercut what accessibility tools can see.

X server has always had an awful accessibility story. The server can break and swap node handles as you're using them.

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#19
post #14

Mmh, I've always wanted my gaming PC to run a useless background agent to eat up CPU cycles that could have been used for my game. Oh well, if I didn't want that, I could just consider using a Steam Machine, which Valve just announced.

Honestly you don't need Valve hardware or SteamOS to make Proton work really well

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#20
post #2

I can't tell you how mutch I don't want this! I know there will be some smart arse out there saying "Just install Linux" Pleas don't I have to use a screenreader called NVDA to read the screen to me as I am blind. There is a screen reader in Linux but it just is not that good. If it was better then I would think about it. I have tried!

You can try apple stuff, i don't know how good their screenreader is but I assume better than the linux one.

Nope. It ranges from same to worse.

VoiceOver is... Well, it has some AI layers that can sometimes rewrite the text it is reading. So... Think AI subtitles, but interacting with them.

JAWS and NVDA are basically Windows-only, because no one else has a decent accessibility story.

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