We've previously reported on industry rumors that Microsoft's Copilot AI service will soon run locally on PCs instead of in the cloud and that Microsoft would impose a requirement for 40 TOPS of performance on the Neural Processing Unit (NPU), but we had been unable to get an on-the-record verification of those rumors. That changed today at Intel's AI Summit in Taipei, where Intel executives, in a question-and-answer session with Tom's Hardware, said that Copilot elements will soon run locally on PCs. Company representatives also mentioned a 40 TOPS requirement for NPUs on next-gen AI PCs.
Microsoft has been largely silent about its plans for AI PCs and even allowed Intel to officially announce Microsoft's new definition of an AI PC. Microsoft’s and Intel’s new co-developed definition states that an AI PC will have an NPU, CPU, GPU, Microsoft’s Copilot, and a physical Copilot key directly on the keyboard.
