- Microsoft has made a remarkable move with the Windows App SDK
- It allows some AI powers to run on non-Copilot+ PCs without an NPU, using an Nvidia GPU instead
- This is an experimental move for now, but it suggests a broader drive to bring more AI capabilities to all Windows 11 PCs, not just Copilot+ models
Microsoft plans to bring AI capabilities to a wider set of Windows 11 PCs, so devices with sufficiently powerful GPUs can take advantage of local AI functionality currently limited to Copilot+ PCs with a fast NPU.
Windows Recently discovered that Microsoft has a new feature in testing – marked as experimental – for the Windows App SDK that allows developers to run local language models (AI functions) on non-Copilot+ PCs using a GPU.
Microsoft stated: “The 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 Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series and newer with 6+ GB of vRAM.”
What does this mean in practice? If you think that all Windows 11 PCs will get the full range of exclusive Copilot+ AI features – such as Recall – is not the case.
What it’s about is allowing software developers to let their apps take advantage of certain AI features on any Windows 11 PC with a qualifying GPU.
As Windows Latest points out, the move will mean that non-Copilot+ PCs can access Microsoft’s Phi Silica small language model and use it locally (on the device, as opposed to reaching out to the cloud) not with an NPU, but with a suitable Nvidia graphics card (with 6GB of video RAM) instead.
This will allow basic AI capabilities such as paraphrasing or summarizing text to be performed in apps where the developer codes for this, outside of the Copilot+ PCs where this would normally be limited to.
Analysis: an agent future
The theory is that this is just the first step, and Microsoft will push for a wider implementation of other AI features for non-Copilot PCs.
It also addresses a frustration that was aired in the very early days of Copilot+ PCs, when I remember a bunch of people questioning why Microsoft limited these AI features to devices with NPUs when a decent GPU was easily able to accelerate these AI workloads on the device.
This was an arbitrary limitation, of course, but now the question shifts to another line: exactly how much AI power will Microsoft allow to be pushed onto non-Copilot+ PCs.
Of course, it’s remarkably late that Microsoft isn’t talking about Copilot+ PCs anymore — the brand didn’t even get a mention at the company’s recent Build conference. Of course, AI was still a hot topic, and Microsoft seems to be shifting its angle from pushing a specific hardware brand to more broadly promoting AI agents, which are set to 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 yet another sign that the company is going very much in the other direction, racing to get more AI capabilities to a wider range of PCs.
When Microsoft originally talked about cutting down on AI bloat — when the Windows 11 campaign fix was first announced — it really meant reducing some of the AI-related clutter in certain operating system menus alongside core apps. A trimming of excesses, basically, and away from that, AI remains a central focus for Microsoft, of course — with this latest move underscoring that fact.
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