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Microsoft: 'ever present' AI assistants are coming

bbc.co.uk

41–50 of 72 posts

Re: Microsoft: 'ever present' AI assistants are coming

#41

Microsoft can't even be arsed to implement proper search in Windows 10/11, and they claim this.

Funnily enough, “AI search” (Recall) is one of the most touted feature of Copilot+ PCs.

I’m no Microsoft hater, but their track record in implementing that feature at a basic level definitely does not bode well for something more complex…

Re: Microsoft: 'ever present' AI assistants are coming

#43

Oh, right, Microsoft says it? It’ll definitely happen, then. Their pronouncements about the future of computing are famously accurate. That’s why we’ve all been using Windows for Pen Computing since the noughties.

A lot of Microsoft's or Bill Gate's predictions turned out correct, they just weren't the ones to make those visions happen. Gates said about 30 years ago that we'd all be having internet connected computers in our pocket in the future, and they were right they just turned out to be powered by Apple and Google and not by Windows. Same with tablet computers. Their own implementation failed but the tablet computer exis…

> Same with tablet computers. Their own implementation failed but the tablet computer exists today and is pretty successful, except is not Win PC based but based on mobile platforms.

We generally don't use them by _writing_ on them, though. Like, their predictive power more or less comes down to "computers will get smaller", here; if anything things like the iPad owe more to the 'Padd' things from Star Trek TNG than they do to Windows for Pen Computing.

On this basis we may surmise that Star Trek is better at predicting the future of computing than Microsoft, and, thus, rather than ever-present AI assistants, we will have evil AIs which can be made to explode with logic paradoxes.

Re: Microsoft: 'ever present' AI assistants are coming

#44

I think what Suleyman is missing here is that most people aren't fine with their "TVs, laptops, in-car cameras and earbuds" recording everything continuously. The most popular modification made to laptops is a small round sticker to seal off the webcam. The enshittification of the car market is something that only car manufacturers seem to like. The most common question with a smart TV is "how do I get that thing to…

> I think what Suleyman is missing here is that most people aren't fine with their "TVs, laptops, in-car cameras and earbuds" recording everything continuously.

I really hope so but I'm not so sure. I suspect most people are fine with anything that isn't obviously intrusive. I sometimes get the feeling that people are more upset with cookie popups than constant invigilation.

Re: Microsoft: 'ever present' AI assistants are coming

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of Microsoft's or Bill Gate's predictions turned out correct, they just weren't the ones to make those visions happen. Gates said about 30 years ago that we'd all be having internet connected computers in our pocket in the future, and they were right they just turned out to be powered by Apple and Google and not by Windows. Same with tablet computers. Their own implementation failed but the tablet computer exis…

> Same with tablet computers. Their own implementation failed but the tablet computer exists today and is pretty successful, except is not Win PC based but based on mobile platforms. We generally don't use them by _writing_ on them, though. Like, their predictive power more or less comes down to "computers will get smaller", here; if anything things like the iPad owe more to the 'Padd' things from Star Trek TNG than…

Most modern iPads do get written on them though, it's just not Windows based I guess. And iPad get more and more features to really write on them a lot.

Re: Microsoft: 'ever present' AI assistants are coming

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of Microsoft's or Bill Gate's predictions turned out correct, they just weren't the ones to make those visions happen. Gates said about 30 years ago that we'd all be having internet connected computers in our pocket in the future, and they were right they just turned out to be powered by Apple and Google and not by Windows. Same with tablet computers. Their own implementation failed but the tablet computer exis…

> Same with tablet computers. Their own implementation failed but the tablet computer exists today and is pretty successful, except is not Win PC based but based on mobile platforms. We generally don't use them by _writing_ on them, though. Like, their predictive power more or less comes down to "computers will get smaller", here; if anything things like the iPad owe more to the 'Padd' things from Star Trek TNG than…

>We generally don't use them by _writing_ on them

Writing and drawing on tablets is actually one of their major selling points in replacing computers and paper notebooks, versus just buying laptops with flippable touch screens which were the tablets of the past.

Re: Microsoft: 'ever present' AI assistants are coming

#48

I think what Suleyman is missing here is that most people aren't fine with their "TVs, laptops, in-car cameras and earbuds" recording everything continuously. The most popular modification made to laptops is a small round sticker to seal off the webcam. The enshittification of the car market is something that only car manufacturers seem to like. The most common question with a smart TV is "how do I get that thing to…

People do not care. This has been the trap of novel tech from the start. It's forced on us, some techy people rave about it even if it sucks, and the "normies" catch on making it the cool new thing to have without having a clue about how it works or what it's doing.

My hopes aren't high that we'll have a great awakening; instead we'll continue to be on auto-pilot until these things have grave consequences like falsely prosecuting or convicting people based on LLM hallucinations. Maybe not even then, who knows.

Re: Microsoft: 'ever present' AI assistants are coming

#49
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Same with tablet computers. Their own implementation failed but the tablet computer exists today and is pretty successful, except is not Win PC based but based on mobile platforms. We generally don't use them by _writing_ on them, though. Like, their predictive power more or less comes down to "computers will get smaller", here; if anything things like the iPad owe more to the 'Padd' things from Star Trek TNG than…

Most modern iPads do get written on them though, it's just not Windows based I guess. And iPad get more and more features to really write on them a lot.

Hrm, I'm actually curious about that. I've had three iPads over the last 14 years; I've never written on any of them. The feature didn't exist for the first two (the first iPad that could use a stylus came out five years after the first iPad, and even then it was only the niche Pro line for a few years), and I never got a stylus for the most recent one.

I've never actually _seen_ anyone use an iPad by writing on it; perhaps it's something that people only do in the privacy of their own homes.

Re: Microsoft: 'ever present' AI assistants are coming

#50

Oh, right, Microsoft says it? It’ll definitely happen, then. Their pronouncements about the future of computing are famously accurate. That’s why we’ve all been using Windows for Pen Computing since the noughties.

While they were wrong about the pen detail (and that wasn't their prediction, PDA manufacturers had pushed the idea of stylus based input for some time beforehand) but they certainly weren't wrong about tablet form factor in general which was a large part of pen computing¹ (and contrary to popular belief Apple were from the first proponents of).

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[1] The hardware wasn't ready though: there were units akin to more recent tables and hybrids (360⁰ hinged laptops or those with detachable keyboards) but at the time it wasn't possible to make them light enough with enough battery life, nor powerful enough² without noisy active cooling, large touch screens that worked well enough without a stylus were too expensive so the pen had to be a thing, etc.

[2] At least to support desktop/laptop workloads. People hadn't got used to the middle-ground of powerful-enough-for-what-you-might-actually-find-a-tablet-convenient-for (PDA like tasks, web browsing, video playback, light games, maybe light office work) via smartphones and nobody wanted to try sell a 9+ inch PDA.

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