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REDMOND - Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella unveiled a new category of PC on May 20 that features generative artificial intelligence tools built directly into Windows, the company’s world leading operating system. The tech giant estimates that more than 50 million “AI PCs” will be sold over the next 12 months, given the appetite for devices powered by ChatGPT-style technology. “We are introducing an entirely new class of Windows PCs engineered to unleash the power of distributed AI,” Nadella said at a launch event in Redmond, Washington. “We call this new category ‘Copilot Plus’... The result is the fastest, most AI-ready Windows PCs ever built,” he added. Of all the tech giants, Microsoft has pushed the most aggressively to infuse the powers of generative AI into its products, often leaving rival Google to play catch-up. ChatGPT-style AI, which is called Copilot at Microsoft, is available across the company’s products, including Teams, Outlook and its Windows operating system. Microsoft even tried, so far unsuccessfully, to rejuvenate Bing, its online search engine, with generative AI powers. The pivot to AI has been celebrated by Wall Street, with Microsoft now the world’s biggest company by market capitalization, taking the spot from Apple. Nadella’s announcement on AI comes on the heels of those made by Google and ChatGPT-maker Open AI last week. The companies showcased updates to their chatbots, featuring more human-like interactions and new abilities to understand their surroundings via video, though the innovations are not yet available to users. Google also announced it was adding AI answers to its world leading search engine, despite fears it may eat into its advertising revenues. Microsoft is OpenAI’s main investor and has injected some $13 billion in the form of cloud computing credits that fulfill the ChatGPT-makers huge needs for computing. Analysts believe that the hunger for AI products is helping buoy Microsoft and Google’s cloud computing businesses, with clients ready to pay a premium to adopt ChatGPT-like capabilities. In a note to clients, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said that AI will add $25 billion-$30 billion to Microsoft’s sales by 2025. “The spending on AI is unprecedented across the tech world and this is just the first phase of the AI Revolution playing out,” Ives said. Microsoft’s injection of AI into PC’s and devices comes just ahead of an Apple event next month that is widely expected to see ChatGPT’s abilities feature in a new iPhone. Media reports also signal that Apple could announce a partnership between Apple and OpenAI. The tech giants are racing the products out the door despite worries that generative Ai poses a threat to society. Authorities, including in the usually low-regulated US, are drawing up ways to more closely track the developments in AI, and potentially put limits on its deployment. AFP