The Microsoft ecosystem in general and the Windows ecosystem in particular point in two directions: it requires an Outlook/Hotmail account and it requires the computer to have an NPU with minimum performance for artificial intelligence (AI) processing. The last thing that will require the company to do these two things is use Paint with Cocreatorwhich is a combination that allows you to turn doodles into illustrations with a seemingly good finish.

Microsoft explained this via a page posted on its support website Using Cocreator in Paint “uses a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to generate images locally on the computer. There are no restrictions on the number of images that can be generated. However, to use Cocreator, you must sign in with your Microsoft account and be connected to the Internet to access cloud services that guarantee the safe use of AI.” In other words, the requirements do not come from Painting, but from Cocreator, which is a local implementation of Image Creator functions based on DALL-E and is part of the Copilot+ PC specification.

The use of artificial intelligence in Windows raises the sensitivity of many users, so Microsoft has come out with a statement that it values ​​privacy and data security. “Cocreator uses Azure online services to ensure safe and ethical use of AI. These services filter content to prevent the generation of harmful, offensive or inappropriate content. Microsoft collects attributes such as user and device identifiers along with user prompts to help prevent and monitor abuse. Microsoft does not store input or generated images.”

“Microsoft is committed to responsible AI practices and the ethical use of technology. When using Cocreator, we use content filtering to prevent the generation of images that may be harmful, offensive or inappropriate. Content filtering is based on a set of criteria that reflect our values ​​and standards, such as human dignity, diversity and inclusion. Content filtering is not perfect and may not detect all occurrences of objectionable images. If you find an image that is inappropriate or unexpected, please report it using the Comments button in the Cocreator panel.”

Questions about security and whether Microsoft is really ethical with AI aside, using Cocreator in Paint allows you to do things like use a text field to specify and enter drawing elements, generate illustrations with AI as the user draws, and continue editing the illustration generated with Cocreator. Looking at the image released by the company, it looks like impressive results can be achieved, especially when we see what Paint originally came from. However, in addition to a Microsoft account, Cocreator also requires a Copilot+ computer and an NPU with 40 TOPS or higher.

The use of Cocreator in Paint is nothing more than another sign of Microsoft’s commitment to artificial intelligence as one of the pillars of its policy of products and services aimed at the general public. It’s up to the user to take advantage of the AI-powered features or not, or so it seems for now.