MS Paint in Windows 11 is getting a couple of new artificial intelligence (AI) features. On Wednesday, Microsoft announced new preview features for Windows Insiders including a major AI upgrade to the Paint app. It is getting a new Generative Fill feature that uses AI to generate objects based on text prompt. Apart from that, the company is also introducing a Generative Erase feature as well as updates to Cocreator and Image Creator. Notably, these features are not available to general users of Windows 11.

MS Paint Gets New AI Features

In its Windows Insider blog post, Microsoft detailed the new AI features for MS Paint. The biggest highlight is the Generative Fill. Similar to Adobe Photoshop’s feature, Generative Fill in MS Paint can add AI-generated objects to an image either created on the app, or loaded to the app.

To use the feature, users will have to use the Selection tool in the Paint toolbar and select an area where they want the object to be added. After selecting, users will now see a small menu pop up at the bottom of the selected area. By selecting Generative Fill, users can open a small text field, where they can type a prompt on what they want to see. Once done, users will need to tap on Create to generate the object.

In case the generated object is not up to their liking, they can tap on the Try Again button to regenerate the object or add more details to the prompt. Once they find the desired output, pressing the Keep button will blend and add it to the image.

Notably, Generative Fill is initially only available on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs and users will need to sign in with their Microsoft account to access it. Currently, the feature is only available to Windows Insiders in select regions.

Apart from this, Microsoft is also adding a Generative Erase feature to MS Paint. The tool can be selected while using the eraser and it removes an object from an image while adding elements to make blend the area with the rest of the background. This is available to users on all Windows 11 PCs.

Additionally, Microsoft has also updated the diffusion-based model for Cocreator, a feature introduced earlier this year. Cocreator takes context from what the user is sketching, and generates similar images with a higher level of creativity and in a wider range of styles. Further, the Image Creator feature in Paint is also being expanded to more regions.

MS Paint in Windows 11 is getting a couple of new artificial intelligence (AI) features. On Wednesday, Microsoft announced new preview features for Windows Insiders including a major AI upgrade to the Paint app. It is getting a new Generative Fill feature that uses AI to generate objects based on text prompt. Apart from that, the company is also introducing a Generative Erase feature as well as updates to Cocreator and Image Creator. Notably, these features are not available to general users of Windows 11.

MS Paint Gets New AI Features

In its Windows Insider blog post, Microsoft detailed the new AI features for MS Paint. The biggest highlight is the Generative Fill. Similar to Adobe Photoshop’s feature, Generative Fill in MS Paint can add AI-generated objects to an image either created on the app, or loaded to the app.

To use the feature, users will have to use the Selection tool in the Paint toolbar and select an area where they want the object to be added. After selecting, users will now see a small menu pop up at the bottom of the selected area. By selecting Generative Fill, users can open a small text field, where they can type a prompt on what they want to see. Once done, users will need to tap on Create to generate the object.

In case the generated object is not up to their liking, they can tap on the Try Again button to regenerate the object or add more details to the prompt. Once they find the desired output, pressing the Keep button will blend and add it to the image.

Notably, Generative Fill is initially only available on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs and users will need to sign in with their Microsoft account to access it. Currently, the feature is only available to Windows Insiders in select regions.

Apart from this, Microsoft is also adding a Generative Erase feature to MS Paint. The tool can be selected while using the eraser and it removes an object from an image while adding elements to make blend the area with the rest of the background. This is available to users on all Windows 11 PCs.

Additionally, Microsoft has also updated the diffusion-based model for Cocreator, a feature introduced earlier this year. Cocreator takes context from what the user is sketching, and generates similar images with a higher level of creativity and in a wider range of styles. Further, the Image Creator feature in Paint is also being expanded to more regions.

MS Paint in Windows 11 is getting a couple of new artificial intelligence (AI) features. On Wednesday, Microsoft announced new preview features for Windows Insiders including a major AI upgrade to the Paint app. It is getting a new Generative Fill feature that uses AI to generate objects based on text prompt. Apart from that, the company is also introducing a Generative Erase feature as well as updates to Cocreator and Image Creator. Notably, these features are not available to general users of Windows 11.

MS Paint Gets New AI Features

In its Windows Insider blog post, Microsoft detailed the new AI features for MS Paint. The biggest highlight is the Generative Fill. Similar to Adobe Photoshop’s feature, Generative Fill in MS Paint can add AI-generated objects to an image either created on the app, or loaded to the app.

To use the feature, users will have to use the Selection tool in the Paint toolbar and select an area where they want the object to be added. After selecting, users will now see a small menu pop up at the bottom of the selected area. By selecting Generative Fill, users can open a small text field, where they can type a prompt on what they want to see. Once done, users will need to tap on Create to generate the object.

In case the generated object is not up to their liking, they can tap on the Try Again button to regenerate the object or add more details to the prompt. Once they find the desired output, pressing the Keep button will blend and add it to the image.

Notably, Generative Fill is initially only available on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs and users will need to sign in with their Microsoft account to access it. Currently, the feature is only available to Windows Insiders in select regions.

Apart from this, Microsoft is also adding a Generative Erase feature to MS Paint. The tool can be selected while using the eraser and it removes an object from an image while adding elements to make blend the area with the rest of the background. This is available to users on all Windows 11 PCs.

Additionally, Microsoft has also updated the diffusion-based model for Cocreator, a feature introduced earlier this year. Cocreator takes context from what the user is sketching, and generates similar images with a higher level of creativity and in a wider range of styles. Further, the Image Creator feature in Paint is also being expanded to more regions.

ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode, a feature that first started rolling out in September, is now being added to the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot’s desktop apps. Announced on Thursday, OpenAI’s native chatbot will now offer a human-like voice chat experience to Mac and Windows users. The feature was first unveiled at the OpenAI Spring Updates event in May and it can express emotions, modulate the voice, and react to what the user is saying. So far, only the paid subscribers of the platform have access to the feature.

ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode Comes to Desktop Apps

In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), the official handle of OpenAI announced that the Advanced Voice Mode has been rolled out to macOS and Windows desktop apps. The move is interesting as major AI firms have started focusing their attention towards the desktop to offer more powerful and comprehensive AI capabilities to users.

On the same day, Anthropic released its desktop apps for Mac and Windows, paving the way for the Computer Use tool. Google is also reportedly working on a new agentic AI browser tool that will be able to complete tasks such as booking movie tickets and purchasing a product. Now, with OpenAI’s Advanced Voice, users can finally utilise the full capability of voice-based AI in a desktop environment. Notably, so far the feature was only available to Android and iOS apps.

Some of the ways users can take advantage of the ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode is by verbally prompting the AI to write a code, or having a back-and-forth while writing a research paper or college assignment. Users can also upload data files and then have a two-way conversation about its analysis and insights.

ChatGPT app users will find the option to turn on the Advanced Voice Mode by tapping the waveform icon placed next to the text field. Tapping on the icon activates the new voice mode. Users now have five new voices to choose from — Vale, Spruce, Arbor, Maple, and Sol. Each of these voices has a different pitch, tonality, and regional accent.

However, the feature is still only available to the ChatGPT Teams and Plus users. Additionally, those residing in the EU, the UK, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein will not get the new feature.

Microsoft Recall — the company’s upcoming feature for Copilot+ PCs — is facing yet another delay. The Redmond company was expected to roll out its Recall feature to Windows Insiders last month. However, it is unlikely to be available for another couple of months, according to the company. The feature is designed to run on Windows 11 Copilot+ PCs and captures screenshots of user activity, and it has faced a lot of criticism since it was first announced, due to privacy and security concerns.

Senior Product Manager Brandon LeBlanc confirmed to The Verge that the Recall feature will only roll out to Windows Insiders program members by December. “To ensure we deliver on these important updates, we’re taking additional time to refine the experience before previewing it with Windows Insiders,” the executive told the publication.

What is Microsoft’s Recall Feature?

Originally announced in May, the new Recall feature is an AI feature designed to run only on Copilot+ PCs. It can help users find things on their computer by taking screenshots of all their activities and allowing them to search the contents of that screenshot at a later date. The announcement of the feature was met with intense criticism from privacy advocates and security experts, who pointed out several flaws with the initial version of Recall.

After the backlash, Microsoft halted its plans to roll out Recall to Windows Insiders testers in June and revealed that it would arrive in October instead. Since then, the company has announced several sweeping changes to the Recall feature that are designed to improve its security.

For example, Recall for Windows will now store encrypted data, and the encryption keys are protected via the CPU’s trusted platform module (TPM). Microsoft says that the feature can only be used inside a secure environment, in order to protect user data from being accessed by other users.

Microsoft has also made some changes to Recall, in order to protect user data from being compromised by malware — the feature will include anti-hammering and rate limiting measures. Meanwhile, access to Recall and the feature’s settings can only be unlocked using Windows Hello authentication, with a PIN as a fallback method.

The company has also clarified that Recall will be opt-in for all users with a Copilot+ PC and that it can be completely removed. If the feature is rolled out to Windows Insiders by December, we can expect Microsoft to finally release it for all Copilot+ PC owners over the next year.

Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said that the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be services that can “reason,” but such a stage requires the cost of computing to come down first.

Next-generation tools will be able to respond to queries by going through hundreds or thousands of steps and reflecting on their own conclusions, he said during a podcast hosted by Arm Holdings Plc CEO Rene Haas. That will give this future software the ability to reason and set it apart from current systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which Huang said he uses every day. 

Nvidia will set the stage for these advances by boosting its chip performance every year by two to three times, at the same level of cost and energy consumption, Huang said. This will transform the way AI systems handle inference — the ability to spot patterns and draw conclusions.

“We’re able to drive incredible cost reduction for intelligence,” he said. “We all realize the value of this. If we can drive down the cost tremendously, we could do things at inference time like reasoning.”

The Santa Clara, California-based company has more than 90 percent of the market for so-called accelerator chips — processors that speed up AI work. It has also branched out to selling computers, software, AI models, networking and other services — part of a push to get more companies to embrace artificial intelligence. 

Nvidia is facing attempts to loosen its grip on the market. Data center operators such as Amazon.com Inc.’s AWS and Microsoft are developing in-house alternatives. And Advanced Micro Devices, already an Nvidia rival in gaming chips, has emerged as an AI contender. AMD plans to share the latest on its AI products at an event Thursday.

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Microsoft is rolling out new artificial intelligence (AI) features to Copilot, the company’s native chatbot. The tech giant is now adding both voice and vision capabilities to the chatbot, after announcing them on Tuesday. Microsoft claims that the new Copilot features are aimed at offering an intuitive design along with “speedy and fluent answers”. The Copilot Voice feature is similar to Gemini Live and ChatGPT’s Voice Mode. Meanwhile, the much-criticised Recall feature will finally be expanded to all Windows Insider users this month.

Microsoft Copilot Updated With AI-Powered Features

In a blog post, Microsoft has shared several details of the new AI features coming to Copilot. These features will be available on the Copilot app on iOS and Android, the web client, as well as the Copilot assistant on Windows. The latter will only be available on the Copilot+ PCs, which are currently powered by the Snapdragon X series chipsets.

Copilot Voice

With four voice options, users can now experience a hands-free voice conversation with Microsoft’s chatbot. The company said it could be used for brainstorming, asking a quick query, or just to have a friendly conversation.

Notably, while the feature will offer a speech-to-speech experience, the company has not highlighted whether the output generation would be in real-time, or if it would support an emotive voice.

Copilot Vision

Copilot Vision is also being added. This is a new way to interact with the AI. Once enabled, the feature will be able to see what the user sees on the screen. The feature also supports voice mode, letting users ask verbal queries about the content. For instance, users can show the AI a picture of furniture and ask about its colour palette, material, and more.

Since this feature can be perceived as invasive to user privacy, Microsoft has also added several layers of security measures. The feature is opt-in and will not work till the user explicitly activates it.

Even after activating it, the feature currently only works with a limited number of websites. Further, the tech giant added that the data processed by the chatbot will not be collected or used to train the AI.

Windows Recall

Microsoft’s Recall feature, which takes passive screenshots of a user’s laptop or desktop and can keep track of the user’s activity locally, is now rolling out to a wider user base. Microsoft highlighted in a blog post that the feature will be rolled out to Windows Insiders using Copilot+ PCs this month.

For now, it will only be available on the Snapdragon-powered PCs. In November, the tech giant will roll it out to the AMD-powered PCs as well.

Final Fantasy XVI released exclusively on the PS5 in 2023, and the game finally made it to PC last month. The action-RPG is still not available on Xbox, with no confirmed launch plans on Microsoft’s console. Now, publisher Square Enix has provided an update over Final Fantasy 16’s potential release on Xbox Series S/X.

Final Fantasy XVI on Xbox

According to Final Fantasy 16 producer and industry legend Naoki Yoshida, popularly knowns as Yoshi-P, Square Enix wants to release an Xbox port for FFXVI, but the company can’t yet confirm a timeline for the same.

“Of course we did announce the PC version of the game, so looking towards the Xbox version, we do want to release it on Xbox,” Yoshida said in a Video Games interview published last week. “But when it comes to the specifics such as when the game would be available and such, we are not in a position to be able to share anything,” he added.

The producer, however, asked Xbox players to not give up hope, saying that Square Enix very much wanted the game to be ported to Xbox. “But of course, I want to say that it’s not as if there’s zero hope, and we very much do want to achieve that. So players should not give up in terms of their hopes.”

Neither Square Enix not Microsoft have yet confirmed an Xbox port of Final Fantasy 16.

Final Fantasy 16 first launched on the PS5 on June 22, 2023. The game recently made the jump to PC, launching on Steam and Epic Games Store on September 17. A Complete Edition, that bundles Echoes of the Fallen and The Rising Tide expansions with the main game, was also recently launched on the PS5.

Square Enix has launched its recent Final Fantasy games exclusively on the PS5, a strategy that has ended up hurting sales. Earlier this year, the publisher said in an earnings report that sales of recent big-budget games were disappointing. According to company CEO Takashi Kiryu, sales of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Final Fantasy XVI and Foamstars — all PlayStation exclusives — fell short of expectations in terms of both revenue and profit.

As a result, Square Enix has since undergone considerable restructuring and is moving away from its practice of releasing its major titles first on PlayStation. According to Kiryu, going forward, big releases will be multi-platform launches, available across PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Xbox and PC.

Microsoft said Wednesday that it would be merging features from the Xbox Game Pass app to the Xbox app on mobile platforms this week. The new streamlined Xbox app with Game Pass features will be available on iOS, Android and iPadOS. Microsoft will also halt all downloads of the Xbox Game Pass app from November. Additionally, the company announced a few other Xbox-related features for PC and consoles, including Game Bar Compact Mode and improvements to the Xbox app on PC.

Xbox App to Get Game Pass Features

Features of the Xbox Game Pass app will be combined with the Xbox app as part of an update available for Xbox beta members on mobile this week. The new all-in-one Xbox app will be available to all users soon. Starting November, Microsoft will no longer support new downloads of the Xbox Game Pass app.

Some of the features coming to the Xbox app will include the ability to explore Microsoft’s game subscription service and manage your membership. “You’ll be able to browse the full Game Pass catalog to find your favorite games and stay in the loop with alerts for new games coming to the service,” the company said in an Xbox Wire post Wednesday.

Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will also be able to view and claim their perks, and stream select games via Xbox Cloud Gaming on iOS or Android.

The regular features of the Xbox app will remain the same for all users, including its social features, updates on games, party chat while gaming, the ability to check achievements and remotely installing games on your console, and more.

Xbox Updates on PC

As part of its September update, Microsoft also confirmed that Game Bar Compact Mode, first announced in August, was now available for all PC players. Initially available to Xbox Insiders, the new mode optimizes Xbox Game Bar for smaller screens and Windows-based gaming handhelds.

Game Bar lets players on Windows view recently played games, access game launchers, capture gameplay footage and more. The Compact Mode brings simplified access to Game Bar widgets on smaller screens. A new feature in Game Bar Compact Mode now allows users to quit a game directly from the Home widget.

To turn on Game Bar Compact Mode, users can head to Game Bar Settings and switch on the Compact Mode toggle found in the General tab.

Users can view and manage add-ons at one place
Photo Credit: Microsoft

The Xbox parent also rolled out an update to the Xbox app on PC that improves the game management experience on the app. Users can now view and install related add-ons for a game, while installing that title, instead of searching for available add-ons on the app. Users can also manage add-ons or additional content for a game by right-clicking on an installed title, selecting “Manage,” and heading to the “Add-ons” section.

Improved Game Management on Xbox Consoles

On Xbox consoles, players can now pre-download game updates and start playing as soon as the update is live. This can be done by heading to My Games & Apps on an Xbox console, then selecting Manage, and then Updates. Here, users will be able to see all available pre-downloads for their games. This feature is currently supported by select games and will be available for more titles later.

Finally, Xbox users will now get notified when a wish listed game is released, joins Game Pass, or becomes available as part of a Free Play Day promotion.