Microsoft unveils Copilot+ PCs, sparking Recall privacy debate

Microsoft used its Build conference to introduce Copilot+ PCs, a new category of Windows computers designed around artificial intelligence. The announcement is about more than adding an assistant to the operating system: it requires a dedicated unit to run AI tasks on the device itself and introduces features such as Recall, which can reconstruct part of the activity carried out in front of the computer.

The move matters because Microsoft wants to shift some AI functions from data centers to the PC. That could reduce reliance on an internet connection, speed up certain tasks and limit the amount of information sent to external services. But it also turns the computer into a device that observes and organizes more data about its user.

AI as a hardware requirement

Copilot+ PCs must include an NPU capable of at least 40 TOPS. An NPU, or neural processing unit, is a chip specialized in the calculations used by AI models; it is designed to handle them with lower power consumption than a conventional CPU or graphics card.

Microsoft is also setting minimum requirements of 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. The first models will come with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus processors, an Arm-based architecture designed to combine battery life and performance. The company has announced devices from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung, along with its own Surface Laptop and Surface Pro.

The devices will go on sale on June 18, starting at $999 in the United States. The Copilot+ PC label therefore does not apply to just any computer compatible with Windows 11: it identifies a specific generation of hardware built to run Microsoft’s new AI experiences.

Recall turns activity into a searchable history

The most striking feature is Recall. Windows periodically takes snapshots of what appears on the screen and uses AI models so users can later search for what they saw or did. Microsoft’s promise is straightforward: retrieve a conversation, webpage, document or image even if the user does not remember the file name or the app they used.

In the Build demonstration, Recall lets users scroll through a timeline of their activity and submit queries in natural language. If someone remembers seeing a chart about a particular topic or a conversation with a specific person, the system aims to find it using the visual and textual content of the captures.

It is not a video recording of the screen, but a file of snapshots that the system processes and indexes. Microsoft says the data is stored locally on the device, is not sent to its servers and is not used to train its models. Recall requires signing in with Windows Hello and allows users to pause collection, delete specific moments or exclude apps and websites.

Privacy depends on more than keeping data on the PC

Local processing avoids one of the main concerns raised by cloud-connected assistants: a company centralizing millions of people’s usage histories. However, it does not eliminate the underlying problem. A file containing screenshots of emails, work documents, messages, purchases or visible credentials could be extremely sensitive if someone else manages to access the computer.

There is also a practical issue. The filters for excluding apps or pages will require users to know the feature exists, understand what information they do not want to retain and configure the exceptions before they need them. On a shared computer, in a workplace or when handling confidential data, that configuration burden could be significant.

Microsoft presented Recall as a tool users can pause and configure, although it was enabled by default in the initial announcement. Its usefulness depends precisely on recording a great deal of context. That tension will be difficult to resolve through configuration controls alone: the more complete the history, the better it can find information; the more complete it is, the greater the potential impact of unauthorized access.

A race to make AI useful in the operating system

Alongside Recall, Copilot+ PCs will include improvements for image generation and editing, live translation through Live Captions and locally processed camera effects. Microsoft says some of these features will work without an internet connection, a significant shift from the first waves of assistants that relied almost entirely on the cloud.

The initiative puts Windows on the same path as Apple and Google: making AI a basic device capability rather than a standalone app. For users, the test will be whether these features genuinely save time. For Microsoft, the immediate challenge will be proving that a computer that remembers more about its owner can also protect that information better.