- Microsoft has made a notable move with the Windows App SDK
- It’s allowing some AI powers to run on non-Copilot+ PCs and without an NPU, using an Nvidia GPU instead.
- This is an experimental move for now, but it suggests a broader push to bring more AI capabilities to all Windows 11 PCs, not just Copilot+ models.
Microsoft plans to bring AI features to a broader set of Windows 11 PCs, allowing devices with sufficiently powerful GPUs to take advantage of local AI functionality that is currently restricted to Copilot+ PCs with a fast NPU.
Windows Latest discovered that Microsoft has a new feature in testing, marked experimental, for the Windows Apps SDK, which allows developers to run local language models (AI functions) on non-Copilot+ PCs by using a GPU.
Microsoft stated: “Language model APIs now run on non-Copilot+ PCs equipped with a supported GPU, bringing local language model capabilities to a wider range of Windows 11 devices. Supported hardware includes the Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series and newer with 6+ GB of vRAM.”
What does this mean in practice? If you’re thinking that all Windows 11 PCs will get the full range of exclusive Copilot+ AI features, like Recall, for example, that’s not the case.
What this is about is allowing software developers to let their apps take advantage of certain AI features on any Windows 11 PC with a qualified GPU.
As Windows Latest points out, the move will mean that non-Copilot+ PCs will be able to access Microsoft’s Phi Silica small language model and use it locally (on the device, rather than reaching the cloud) not with an NPU, but with an appropriate Nvidia graphics card (with 6GB of video RAM).
This will allow basic AI capabilities, such as rewriting or summarizing text, to be carried out within applications where the developer codes for this, outside of Copilot+ PCs where this would normally be restricted.
Analysis: a future agent
The theory is that this is just the initial step, and Microsoft is going to push for a broader rollout of other AI features on PCs other than Copilot.
It also addresses a frustration that was expressed in the early days of Copilot+ PCs, when I remember a group of people wondering why Microsoft was limiting these AI features to devices with NPUs, when a decent GPU was easily capable of accelerating these AI workloads on the device.
This was an arbitrary restriction, of course, but now the question shifts to a different line: exactly how many AI powers Microsoft will allow to be introduced to non-Copilot+ PCs.
Of course, it’s notable lately that Microsoft isn’t talking about Copilot+ PCs anymore: the brand didn’t even get a mention at the company’s recent Build conference. AI was still a hot topic, of course, and Microsoft appears to be shifting its angle from pushing a specific hardware brand to more broadly promoting AI agents, which will be the next big thing (AI-wise) in Windows 11.
If you thought Microsoft was cutting back on AI in Windows 11, then this is another sign that the company is going in the other direction and striving to incorporate more AI features into a wider range of PCs.
When Microsoft initially talked about reducing AI bloat, when the Windows 11 fix campaign was first announced, what it really meant was reducing some of the AI-related clutter in certain operating system menus alongside core apps. Basically, it’s about trimming excesses and, apart from that, AI remains a key focus for Microsoft, of course, and this latest move underlines that fact.
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