Microsoft announced Copilot+ PCs at the annual build event 2024, packed with several exclusive AI features. The Copilot+ PCs ship with a new feature called “Recall,” which is limited to selected hardware and can record your screen. In addition to Recall, a new Cocreator feature is available in the Paint app.
Cocreator is an image generation feature that runs locally on the Copilot+ PCs. It uses the powerful Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to produce images based on textual prompts from the user. Is this feature similar to the existing Image Creator in Microsoft Paint? Well, no.
Cocreator is slightly different because it works locally on the device and doesn’t need to send prompts to the internet to produce the images. As expected, the image production is faster than before. You will notice three options in the Paint app: Image Creator, Cocreator, and Layers.
Microsoft demonstrated Cocreator’s abilities on the Surface Pro, which has a touch screen. First, the presenter inputted the prompt and then began to draw a basic outline of what the image must look like.
The cocreator generated the image according to those vague shapes.
Apart from that, you can easily adjust the creativity level of the AI while producing the requested images. Increasing the slider improves the image quality while lowering it makes it unappealing.
So, you can utilize the NPU’s power to create images while inking or use Image Creator to generate images using Copilot. The Photos app also gets an image styling feature on Copilot+ PCs.
Photos app gets Restyle Image feature
Microsoft has already improved the Photos app significantly by adding iCloud support and features like background blur and “Retouch.” But on Copilot+ PCs, the app now offers a Restyle Image feature.
Using it, you can modify existing photos to various pre-configured artistic styles. For example, you can transform a simple profile photo into an anime style. Furthermore, you can define your unique style using the text prompt box to convert the image. Like the Paint app, you can adjust the creativity level here too.
The most significant difference the Windows Latest noticed is that you don’t get a fixed number of credits to use the feature. Cocreator and Restyle Images work locally on the PC and can produce unlimited designs using the locally available small language models.
Both these features rely on NPU and won’t be available on all Windows PCs. Therefore, all existing Windows 11 users are now stuck with Copilot and other web-based Copilot GPTs.
