Forum Discussion
Windows 12 as far as i know?
I have a very hard time seeing it being able to require NPU requirements on Windows, as this is mostly for running AI, and has nothing to do with security classification.
I work in IT within a Swedish municipality's IT, we are not even allowed to have a Microsoft account, everything must be run via Active Directory and saved locally on the computer in the matter of GDPR in Europe in order not to break laws.
No cloud storage either and we are not allowed to run any extensions to browsers or in the Office package that can risk and collect data is prohibited.
and we will absolutely not replace thousands of computers to support AI, an AI that could possibly risk reading data, it would also be against the GDPR.
So if you were to demand AI support via NPU, first of all, Microsoft would lose every single government and municipality in Europe from upgrading, gamers don't care about AI.
So it would probably be a real problem to get people to switch to Windows 12.
Of all Windows end users, there are even 10% who care about AI on a larger scale, translating text, and generating text can easily be handled with normal CPU power, advanced AI functions that possibly require NPU cannot be many compared to the number of Windows end users.
You're right. Most people don't care about AI. I personally don't care. All I do is play games in my computer or browse the Internet. That's it. This AI crap is overhyped.
Dean3610 You are not alone either, i would not care about AI either.
As a private person completely uninterested in AI in both Office and Windows, possibly being able to retrieve more accurate weather. but you hardly need NPU for that.
In working life, with all the GDPR laws within the Union, we would most likely disable these via group policy, so the end users cannot activate these except for some less specific ones, but it would require that each specific function be checked against the GDPR laws in the Union, the AI that possibly can reading and writing files on the computers would be strictly prohibited.
Should Microsoft require NPU, they would have to release a unique version for companies/governments to the EU that removes the requirements and does not include the features at all.
But it would be practically easier for Microsoft to just disable functions on computers that do not have NPU processors in such a case.
Setting system requirements for security reasons can probably be accepted by everyone, but setting system requirements for an operating system that maybe 1% of end users will only use feels like it would be the death of Windows as a whole and let Linux take over.
Because even Microsoft Active Directory has received competition recently with Jump Cloud.
