Microsoft is in its AI PC era

The new Surfaces are here, Scarlett Johansson takes issue with GPT-4o, and the case for a touchscreen MacBook, on this episode of The Vergecast.

We’ve heard the story so many times, that this is the time that Windows on Arm will work and we’ll get a revolution in powerful, portable, long-lasting PCs. For a decade, the story has been fiction. This time, though... I don’t know. It sort of seems real.

On this episode of The Vergecast, Tom Warren joins from Seattle to tell us all about Microsoft’s latest event, what a Copilot Plus PC is, how the new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop feel, why Recall could be the AI killer app Microsoft needs, and more. If Microsoft is right about how good the Qualcomm X chips are, this could be one of the biggest weeks in Windows history. Don’t forget to subscribe to Notepad!

After that, Kylie Robison comes on the show to talk about all things OpenAI. That lively, fun, flirty GPT-4o demo is still on our minds — is this the AI future we’re looking for? And what’s going to happen to Sky, the voice everyone heard and immediately said sounded like Scarlett Johansson, now that ScarJo herself has taken issue with it? The kind of company OpenAI wants to be, and the kinds of products it wants to build, seem hugely important in the next phase of the tech industry.

Finally, we take a question from the Vergecast Hotline about the difference between a touchscreen MacBook — which might happen — and a Mac-like iPad — which probably won’t. It’s about hardware and software, but mostly, it’s about business models. But hey, Apple, can we at least get better browsers?

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, beginning with Microsoft:

Microsoft’s 2024 Surface AI event: news, rumors, and lots of Qualcomm laptopsMicrosoft Surface event: the 6 biggest announcementsMicrosoft announces Copilot Plus PCs with built-in AI hardwareThe new, faster Surface Pro is Microsoft’s all-purpose AI PCMicrosoft Surface Pro hands-onMicrosoft announces an Arm-powered Surface LaptopHands-on with the Surface Laptop on ArmRecall is Microsoft’s key to unlocking the future of PCsAll the Copilot Plus PC laptops announced at Microsoft Surface 2024Inside Microsoft’s mission to take down the MacBook Air

And on OpenAI:

OpenAI releases GPT-4o, a faster model that’s free for all ChatGPT usersChatGPT will be able to talk to you like Scarlett Johansson in HerOpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever is officially leavingOpenAI researcher resigns, claiming safety has taken ‘a backseat to shiny products’OpenAI pulls its Scarlett Johansson-like voice for ChatGPTScarlett Johansson told OpenAI not to use her voice — and she’s not happy they might have anywayOpenAI is ‘in conversations’ with Scarlett Johansson over the ChatGPT voice that sounds just like her