With the integration of ChatGPT in Microsoft’s Edge browser and the rumors of Windows 12, everything points to the fact that we could see an AI-powered Windows 12 future. However, the concept of an operating system based on AI that would be possible is not what many expect and we have to know how to differentiate between what is science fiction and reality.
The term artificial intelligence is on everyone’s lips, since it is a fashion today or at least it appears to be. The truth is that this discipline of computing has been with us for decades and it is just now that an AI-based operating system that runs on a conventional PC and does not require powerful data centers or extremely expensive hardware is becoming possible.
Hardware is still green for AI
We must take into account that artificial intelligence is nothing more than the ability to learn from a computer, and therefore the ability to learn certain patterns from certain data, which allows us to solve a series of problems of automatically and efficiently. Making these fully automated today without requiring any kind of additional effort. However, it is not a program, but solutions developed by the system itself after a learning period, which consists of a collection of data and scenarios of a specific type.
This process is not done on our machines, but the AI algorithms are already built into certain applications and, therefore, what we are concerned with is the right hardware to run them. Although in mobile their central chipsets have neural units to accelerate these algorithms, in PC these units are a novelty in terms of their CPUs and although we have elements such as Tensor units in NVIDIA RTX, it is not about a general element.
What’s more, it hasn’t been until the arrival of Intel Core 12 onwards and its AMX unit that we haven’t had really specialized hardware for AI. In the case of AMD, the first processors to have hardware in this sense have been the Ryzen 7000 for laptops, specifically the 7040 family. Therefore, unlike what happens with mobile phones, we are still very green in this regard and we must wait a few years.
What will an AI-based operating system look like?
If you are thinking of a glorified assistant with the intelligence of a HAL 9000 and the ability to program from scratch the programs that we ask for in the same way that ChatGPT gives you an answer, let us tell you that it will not be like that at all, which does not mean that we are not going to see improvements in the daily experience, but it is better to talk about something that is possible and useful to talk about an operating system of this type than to leave with musings.
What would your chances be?
- Said AI-based operating systems have better search by metadata, that is, contrary to what happens today, we can say it in voice or in writing: find me all the files from yesterday that are images and weigh more than 1 megabyte ability.
- Since we are using our voice, we can ask it to perform tasks such as installing and uninstalling programs, checking the health of the drivers, changing the format and size of a file, and so on. All this with a simple command and without having to navigate through menus, yes, this will mean that the programs and the operating system itself are prepared for it.
- The operating system is in charge of managing the processes between the different hardware resources, especially between the processor cores. One with artificial intelligence capabilities can easily learn what is the best choice at all times and use resources more efficiently.
- We can also talk about the ability to self-manage their problems, that is, being able to see if something is not working well, and take the appropriate steps to solve it without us having to worry.
As you can see, it is nothing like the image that science fiction has given us, although it would be a step forward in usability and productivity compared to what we have today. Do you think that the future of operating systems is AI to add new capabilities never seen before or, on the contrary, they will never be fully implemented and will barely evolve?
