It’s been two years since Microsoft released Windows 11 and the company has been hard at work ever since bringing new upgrades like the AI-powered personal assistant Copilot with the latest version of the operating system that launched alongside the next generation Surface laptops in September.
As we all know, engineers at Microsoft are in the process of developing the next version of the OS, called Windows 12. Usually, the tech giant runs its operating systems for about five or six years at the least before performing a complete overhaul.
Not much was known to the public about the forthcoming Windows 12 until someone higher up at chip manufacturing giant Intel let it slip.
Intel CFO Reveals Possible Release Date For Windows 12
During a discussion at the recently concluded Citi 2023 Global Technology Conference in New York, Intel CFO David Zinsner may have accidentally revealed the release date for Windows 12 while speaking about the chip maker’s plans for the future.
According to a transcript of the talk, Zinsner was referring to the company’s work on upcoming chipsets when he mentioned that 2024 was going to a be big year for Intel’s clients because of a new Windows refresh.
Although he didn’t go into much detail about the OS, his comments do provide intriguing hints about a major upgrade coming to Windows.
It is also important to note that Microsoft has yet to confirm any information about Windows 12.
There are reports surfacing that Microsoft intends to release an operating system that will be encoded with artificial intelligence technology. In the past year, the Seattle-based tech behemoth has been implementing machine learning algorithms into its various parts of Windows 11 but the software itself wasn’t built with AI in mind.
So it would not surprise anyone if Microsoft were to bring out a swift refresh for Windows out of the blue where the actual firmware is designed to incorporate artificial intelligence.
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Microsoft Introduced AI Assistant ‘Copilot’ In New Windows 11
Last month, Microsoft unveiled the latest version of Windows 11, predominantly powered by AI technology. Earlier this year, the company had implemented a generative AI called Copilot on the Bing search engine.
In the updated Windows 11, Microsoft incorporated the chatbot directly onto the desktop where it allows users to control settings, launch apps, draw on Paint, and work on the Microsoft Office applications by simply sending prompts to Copilot.
Copilot, developed in partnership with OpenAI – creators of the large language model (LLM) algorithm-powered chatbot ChatGPT and image generator DALL-E, came as a replacement for the Cortona digital assistant, which was shut down by the company in August.
Windows Central, an online publication that closely follows developments at Microsoft, reported that the work on Windows 12 was “kicked up a notch” over the last couple of months, and its “active development” was now in full swing with most of the work expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2024.
What was earlier considered a rumor has since been validated by the comments from Intel’s CFO. After all, Intel would definitely know if Microsoft is preparing a major upgrade for Windows since the company manufactures chipsets that power up computers running the OS.
Intel’s New Chips Have Neural Processing Units Dedicated For AI
Meanwhile, Intel just announced the new Intel Core Ultra processors, set to launch in December, that are primarily designed for laptop computers. The company has something big in the box for next year, known as the Arrow Lake-S. The 24-core CPU’s launch could coincide with the release of Windows 12.
Intel’s new Meteor Lake chips, found in the latest Surface laptops, feature a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU) for enhancing on-device AI performance and an industry-first integrated NPU AI engine.
