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Windows 11 preview references AI feature that searches audio and video files for specific words

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A hot potato: It’s easy to imagine that after the Recall controversy, Microsoft would tread carefully when it comes to AI-powered features that rifle through the contents of users’ PCs. However, references to an ‘intelligent media search’ in a Windows 11 Canary build suggest lessons haven’t been learned: the function can search for specific spoken words in your stored audio and video files.

Intelligent media search, referenced in Canary Channel build 27695 (spotted by @XenoPanther), works by transcribing all audio files and videos saved on a Windows PC so the spoken words are searchable.

The idea behind the tool is that users could, for example, find something that was mentioned in a recorded meeting, or for YouTube video creators to search through their extensive libraries for a certain moment. It could also be used to organize files that mention a particular topic.

Microsoft’s description asks users to consent to their media files on a device being scanned. An AI model will be downloaded and installed, which transcribes the user’s local media files and indexes them before enabling content-based search.

It does seem surprising that Microsoft is going down this path once again after the Recall controversy. Announced on May 20 and initially set for an official launch in the Copilot+ PCs, the feature constantly takes screenshots of whatever you’re doing every few seconds, storing the snapshots so users can search through a scrollable timeline to find something they’ve been working on.

Despite Microsoft announcing that Recall would be opt-in and the search index database encrypted, the outcry against the feature’s privacy implications continued. The Redmond firm eventually said it was delaying Recall’s launch. It will return in Insider builds this October.

It’s likely that, as with Recall, Intelligent media search will be a feature exclusive to the Copilot+ PCs that arrived in June. Microsoft requires these devices to offer an NPU with at least 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS).

Unsurprisingly, plenty of people (though not everyone) have spoken out against intelligent media search, noting that Microsoft could use the information it scans on a person’s PC to further train its AI models or even for targeted advertising purposes. There are also the inherent security risks associated with such a feature.

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