Microsoft Adding an AI Key to PC Keyboards
January 4th, 2024Microsoft can pry my right CTRL key from my cold, dead fingers.
Via: Ars Technica:
Microsoft pushed throughout 2023 to add generative AI capabilities to its software, even extending its new Copilot AI assistant to Windows 10 late last year. Now, those efforts to transform PCs at a software level is extending to the hardware: Microsoft is adding a dedicated Copilot key to PC keyboards, adjusting the standard Windows keyboard layout for the first time since the Windows key first appeared on its Natural Keyboard in 1994.
The Copilot key will, predictably, open up the Copilot generative AI assistant within Windows 10 and Windows 11.
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A quick Microsoft demo video shows the Copilot key in between the cluster of arrow keys and the right Alt button, a place where many keyboards usually put a menu button, a right Ctrl key, another Windows key, or something similar. The exact positioning, and the key being replaced, may vary depending on the size and layout of the keyboard.
Can I just pry off the cover from the key so I don’t accidentally press it? Maybe wedge it so it can’t be pressed? Caulk it? If AI realizes I’m a saboteur, can it electrocute me through the keyboard? Or kill me with radio waves from my router? When will using the key be replaced with AI always automatically rewriting what I write because it does it so much better?
It’s hard to know how nuts Microsoft is going to go with this. It’s possible that there will be no opt out of it at the single license level. Maybe enterprises will be able to opt out, or have some control over the users it surveils.
Hackers will probably figure out how to disable it.
On mobile phones, hardware innovation has been stagnating for years. This month, starting with Samsung, the marketing hype will change to a focus on the AI capabilities of the phones and less about the hardware.
Galaxy Unpacked 2024: Opening a New Era of Mobile AI
https://news.samsung.com/global/invitation-galaxy-unpacked-2024-opening-a-new-era-of-mobile-ai
It might be a good idea for people to start figuring out which distribution of Linux they can tolerate because the rest of it is all about sucking up as much personal information as possible. Microsoft (Windows), Apple (MacOS, iOS, etc) and Google (Android) are all privacy nightmares.
AI phones? So I can choose a silky voice like Tokyo Rose or a tough voice like Schwarzenegger to make a stronger impression than my ordinary voice? That would fail when we talked in person. Maybe speak in a foreign language? Nope, AI still can’t do proper English.
But maybe people could disguise themselves behind AI if it never uses their actual voices or words or pics? (Endless fun for hackers!) The world is already running on so much fake info, maybe that much more could be the final monkey wrench in the works.
Voice changer technology has been around on phones for many years.
One of the features Samsung pre-announced for their upcoming Galaxy AI system is real time language translation for phone calls. For example, as an English speaker, you could call a Spanish speaker. As you speak English, the phone will translate what you say into Spanish on the other end.
I don’t know if the AI makes the translated voices sound like the people speaking, or if some sort of synthesized voice will be used:
“Audio and text translations will appear in real-time as you speak…”
I’m not saying that Samsung will be able to pull this off convincingly. It’s just what they’re claiming.
https://www.samsung.com/nz/news/local/samsung-a-new-era-of-galaxy-ai-is-coming-heres-a-glimpse/