this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
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Futurology
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This is such a hilarious bit of branding nonsense. There is no such thing as "AI PCs".
I mean, I technically own one, in that the branding says I do and it has a Copilot button, but... well, that's definitely not why I purchased it and I don't think I've used an "AI feature" on it. I'm not even opinionated against them, I have run local LLMs in my other computers, it's just not a good application for the device I own that is specifically branded for "AI".
The stupidity of it is that my "AI device" is an ARM device, and I absolutely love the things ARM Windows does that are actually useful. I pulled up my old x64 device that I used before I got this and man, the speed of Windows Hello, how much better it handles video streams, the efficiency... I'd never go back for a portable device at this point.
But the marketing says it's "AI", so once people start telling each other that "AI PCs" are bad and new AMD and Intel "AI" CPUs are released it's anybody's guess how the actually useful newer Windows ARM devices will fare.
I'm still hoping that the somewhat irrational anger towards "AI" stuff subsides so we can start talking about real features now, because man, this has been a frustrating generation to parse for portable Windows devices, and we still have Android, iOS and Mac devices coming down the pipe with similar branding nonsense.
What are you referring to about Windows Hello?
Windows Hello existed long before AI became a trendy thing.
The instructions supported by NPU processors are designed for tasks like image recognition.
So, theoretically Hello might be quite a bit faster or more reliable (for a given time or energy budget) with an NPU.
The marketing is 100% drivel though.
Nothing to do with NPUs, as far as I know, it's down to the dedicated video stream acceleration that ARM chips have carried for a while.
In practical terms, Windows Hello unlocks noticeably faster, just like a phone with facial recognition does. It also disproportionately handles video playback more efficiently, given the relative overall performance. Nothing new, either, it's all stuff Apple got out of their own ARM transition, but way underrated in how much of a moment-to-moment difference it makes, particularly for stuff like the Surface Pro and other hybrids, where you want to handle it on battery and use it more like a tablet sometimes.