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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

#321

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 »

ChicagoDave wrote: post #311
Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> OpenAI enabled its users to have a sext conversation. Considering that this is only with verified adults, how is this "evil"? I find it more evil to treat full grown adult users as kids and heavily censor their use of LLMs. (Not to detract from the rest of your post, with which I agree).

My point is not about morality. It’s about ROI focus and that OpenAI can’t and won’t ever return anything remotely close to what’s been invested. Adult content is not getting them closer to profitability. And if anyone believes the AGI hyperbole, oh boy I have a bridge and a mountain to sell. LLM tech will never lead to AGI. You need a tech that mimics synapses. It doesn’t exist.

I suspect this may be one of those predictions that may not quite pan out. I am not saying it is a given, but never is about as unlikely.

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

#322

Post by Traubenfuchs »

xp84 wrote: post #55
xzjis wrote: 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.

> run a useless background agent to eat up CPU cycles Hey, that's not fair, won't this eat up GPU cycles? ;)

Both!

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

#323

Post by saltwatercowboy »

A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 wrote: post #321
ChicagoDave wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point is not about morality. It’s about ROI focus and that OpenAI can’t and won’t ever return anything remotely close to what’s been invested. Adult content is not getting them closer to profitability. And if anyone believes the AGI hyperbole, oh boy I have a bridge and a mountain to sell. LLM tech will never lead to AGI. You need a tech that mimics synapses. It doesn’t exist.

I suspect this may be one of those predictions that may not quite pan out. I am not saying it is a given, but never is about as unlikely.

...Why?

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

#324

Post by bionsystem »

sbankowi wrote: post #58
jmclnx wrote: post #10

I could not get into the article, but the wayback machine can https://web.archive.org/web/20251118002918/https://www.windo... If people do not want this spyware, we all here know what OS they can move to :)

FreeBSD!

Is 2026 the year of freebsd on the desktop ?

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

#325

Post by dansmith1919 »

int_19h wrote: post #279
pjmlp wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can, the problem is that apparently they aren't able to hire people nowadays with Win32 development experience, so they get interns that have grown in US universities with macOS and Linux, which sundenly have a Win32 developer role. That is how you end up with web garbage in what was supposed to be native code, or .NET. I think this is also a reason why WinUI efforts went down the drain.

They laid off a lot of people with Win32 experience in the past couple of years. If that was really a problem they could just hire some of them back (or, I dunno, keep them in the first place).

Keep them?? But how else would you keep devs working hard if there are no mass layoffs to be afraid of all the time??

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

#326

Post by bionsystem »

ryandrake wrote: post #79
kvakvs wrote: post #57

Just checked my Windows (i have latest). It has Settings -> AI components tab. It has "There are no AI components currently installed". I will let it stay this way till i need it. I like AI, but only when i control what it does.

> I will let it stay this way till i need it. I guarantee it will stay that way only until Microsoft decides you need it, and then they will just silently enable it and bury the option to disable it.

At this point, why isn't Amazon shipping us products that they think we should buy ? After all we can always send them back and get a refund if we don't want them.

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

#327

Post by EagnaIonat »

Arainach wrote: post #149
stubish wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But how is this worse? If you run an agent now, it will run with your privileges. If you run an agent after this feature, it will run with limited privileges as specified by you. Heaps of ranting here about agents sucking down private data to Microsoft servers without your knowledge, where a cursory look at this feature is to give you more control if you actually want to use agents. Sure, it might be learned reflex b…

It's worse because they're exposing these features to the kind of people who aren't running agents now.

It literally says in the article:

"This feature is completely optional and is never turned on by default."

Reading the full article this is just a power user feature and in beta at that. I can see where it could be useful and the fact it puts further restrictions on how each agent works mitigates security issues.

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

#328

Post by Traubenfuchs »

rf15 wrote: post #143
arunc wrote: post #91

How worse can this get? Let's share more product ideas for Microsoft.

Right, I always wanted a career in hell: 1. I think it should be mandatory to have your webcam and microphone on 24/7 for, uh, your safety, especially your children's safety (you never know when a pedophile will hide under your bed!). physical workarounds or disabling them is a TOS violation and will turn your machine off and unable to start again until hardware is restored (again, for your safety). Of course you als…

9. alt+tab (TM) as subscription

10. "app slots" -you can only have n apps installed, you have to pay for upgrades to have more

11. mandatory windows store, no side-loading, no .exe

12. Edge experience tiers: Websites are grouped into bundles and you can only visit websites in the tier you pay for

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

#329

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 »

thewebguyd wrote: post #118
Terr_ wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are two factors: 1. "Help customers buy crap" is one of the vaguely plausible use-cases which excite investors who see the ads, even if it isn't so exciting for actual customers. 2. The ideas seem sourced from some brain-trust of idle-rich, rather than from the average US consumer. Regardless of how the characters in the ads are presented, all of them are somehow able to prefer saving 60 seconds even if…

> The ideas seem sourced from some brain-trust of idle-rich , rather than from the average US consumer I think it says more about the economy currently. The "average US consumer" is the wealthy right now. Just 10% of the population, the highest earners, drive nearly 50% of consumption currently and that number is growing. That is the new average US consumer, hence the ads and use cases targeting a more well-off demog…

I think my marketing professor said something interesting about it a decade or so ago. Basically, in the US we are moving towards heavy bifurcation. You can cater to the well-off or not well-off. The class was full of kids, who did not seem to understand the implications of what he was already saying then ( not that it technically is that mindblowing, the signs are there.. ).
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