Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

windowslatest.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

621–630 of 657 posts

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

#621

Post by anon3242 »

torginus wrote: post #278

Moral implications aside, It's funny to see that MS (and AI companies) sees the future of agentic AI as ChatGPT creating screenshots and clicking and scrolling around the UI. There are tools like MS Active Accessibility and UI automation which are designed for helping impaired people use the computer, as well as very useful for testing. UI automation in particular is designed for semantic understanding instead of rep…

I feel that there is a trend in tech that is intentionally and sneakily creating a problem in order to sell the solution that we don't really need in the first place.

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

#622

Post by hnlmorg »

wkat4242 wrote: post #617
hnlmorg wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, if you ignore all the anticompetitive bullshit they pulled to blackmail high street stores into removing BeOS, DrDOS, Linux and others from their shelves. And the stunts they pulled to kill other IMs. Or how they crippled the web for a decade due to killing competing browsers, building Windows lock-ins into IE (eg ActiveX controls), fragmenting Java, and then leaving IE to die themselves. Or how they lied about…

They are very good at talking to businesses but even more important was their installed base. As they used to say "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM". They won because they were first mover, not because they were the best because they weren't and they aren't. This is why they are so hell bent on copilot everywhere. They want to build an installed base again so they can milk it. But they're hardly the best. In fact…

They weren’t the first movers. They just managed to get IBM to sign with them after BASIC proved not to be IBMs long term version and CP/M struck out from any disk OS talks (though stories differ about exactly how that interaction went)

Microsoft didn’t even have an OS when they made that deal with IBM.

Hence why I said they’re good at negotiating with businesses.

Being first to market is actually less important than people think it is. It’s just history tends to remember the victors so everyone assumes they were first to market.

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

#623

Post by tim333 »

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.

The words 'lead to' there cover a lot. I don't think we'll get AGI just by giving more compute to the models but modifying the algorithms could cover a lot of things.

Like at the moment I think during training new data changes all the model weights which is very compute intensive and makes it hard to learn new things after training. The human brain seems to do it in a more compartmentalised way - learning about a new animal say does not rewrite the neurons for playing chess or speaking French for example. You could maybe modify the LLM algo along those lines without throwing it away entirely.

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

#624

Post by masfoobar »

zwolbers wrote: post #486
masfoobar wrote: post #376

Glad I am off Windows (officially) I've been a Linux user since 2006-7 but still had a Windows PC around just incase I needed it. The odd games or in relation to work. Windows 11 was just sloooow. It would take 5-20 seconds to load some of my popular programs and I never understood why. I am open to accepting there could be other factors at play rather than claiming "It was Windows" but considering all the other fluf…

What's frustrating is there's a half decent operating system underneath all of this crap. I don't know how much can be attributed to a corporate license, or if our IT department is just working miracles, but on my work laptop there's no bloatware, no spyware, and it boots and loads programs quickly (for Windows). I have no intention of moving away from Linux on my machines, but this is the most I've enjoyed Windows s…

As much as I can be biased towards Linux and Open/Free Software.. and that I can be anti-M$ at times.. I agree that Windows is a GOOD OPERATING SYSTEM!

Underneath all the bloat and features I do not want.. is a clean and fast OS.

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

#625

Post by masfoobar »

59nadir wrote: post #532
masfoobar wrote: post #376

Glad I am off Windows (officially) I've been a Linux user since 2006-7 but still had a Windows PC around just incase I needed it. The odd games or in relation to work. Windows 11 was just sloooow. It would take 5-20 seconds to load some of my popular programs and I never understood why. I am open to accepting there could be other factors at play rather than claiming "It was Windows" but considering all the other fluf…

For what it's worth my experience with Windows 11 is that it's slower than Windows 10 for whatever reason, even though I'm doing exactly the same things in exactly the same ways, so it definitely echoes your assessment. I personally think Windows has historically been the best OS for native development but I'm out. I've used Linux a ton before on/off since ~2003 but at this point it's looking more and more like there…

In the past, I have managed to get my Nvidia Cards working on Linux. It was a bit on tinkering but nothing too difficult.

Well.. that was over 10 years ago! I cannot comment today.

But the next time I purchase or build my own PC it will be AMD over Intel and Nvidia.

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

#626

Post by pjmlp »

int_19h wrote: post #590
hat_monger wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> building things customers/users/peers will value. AI. Customers want AI, users want AI, peers want AI. If anyone says otherwise, they’re a Luddite and possibly a dangerous political radical.

I'm no longer at MSFT, but according to the people that are, the leadership is straight up saying that anyone who doesn't like AI coding has no place in the company now.

Unfortunely, they are making people like myself, that in general tend to have comments more pro-Windows, starting to consider the alternatives yet again.

Even .NET and C++ tooling getting spoiled with AI no matter what, see latest set of DevBlog announcements.

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

#627

Post by graemep »

monegator wrote: post #411
exe34 wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is notepad++ still a thing? I only use Windows as a dumb terminal now.

Yes. The two applications i miss on my linux boxes are notepad++ (though Kate is a good substitute) and GitExtensions

Out of curiosity, what does notepad++ have that kate of other texteditors does not?

Looking at the features there does not seem to be anything special, but a lot of people seem to love it so there is clearly something special about it.

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

#628

Post by einsteinx2 »

dplesh wrote: post #555
Numerlor wrote: post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then the outrage can come when that happens? This comment section is 50% people that haven't used windows in 10 years complaining

it goes 'fool me once shame on you..' you know the rest of the sentence

“Fool me…you can't get fooled again.” ?

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

#630

Post by Grimblewald »

spacechild1 wrote: post #580
iamtedd wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fucking start menu used to be an actual windows component that opened instantaneously. It's a web app now, sometimes taking seconds to open. I also noticed a lot of the time windows just ignores me double clicking on things in file explorer, leaving me to sit there wondering if I have to do it again.

> The fucking start menu used to be an actual windows component that opened instantaneously. It's a web app now This is disgusting! Who even comes up with ideas like that?

intern supervised by copilot most likely.
Post reply on HN