Microsoft looks to be launching a new program designed to allow users to sign up to early testing of experimental AI features in Windows 11 Apps. The new “Windows AI Labs” program first started appearing for users in Microsoft Paint, and lets the user sign up to try “experimental AI features.”
It doesn’t look like the program is fully live yet, as attempting to sign-up results in an error. However, we can see that the program is designed to allow Microsoft to gather feedback from users about upcoming AI features that aren’t yet shipping to production PCs.
The terms and agreements for the program state that it’s “designed to provide Microsoft and selected participants with an opportunity to engage in ongoing evaluation of pre-release versions of Microsoft Paint. Your early feedback will help shape these features for the rest of the audience.”
Microsoft has been testing new AI features in Windows 11 openly with Windows Insiders up until now, so it’s interesting to see that the company is considering an additional preview program that’s specific to new AI features. The Windows AI Labs program requires the user to sign-up, outside of the usual Insider Program.
Access to the Windows AI Labs page has only started appearing for some users, so it’s not yet available to everyone. It’s also unclear what kind of AI features Microsoft intends to test via the program, or whether or not said features will require a Copilot+ PC to utilize, as some AI capabilities depend on a local NPU.
Yesterday, Microsoft announced a big update to Paint that introduced support for project files, similar to Adobe Photoshop that lets you save a work-in-progress file with multiple layers and edits for re-opening in Paint at a later point. The company also announced an update to Notepad that introduced on-device AI generation tools.
Windows AI Labs has only appeared in Paint so far, but we wouldn’t be surprised if it eventually shows up in other high-level in-box Windows apps like Notepad, given that it’s also received a ton of AI features in the last year.
via Windows Latest
