Summary

  • AI Explorer in Windows 11 could revolutionize search capabilities, but only on ARM PCs with specific requirements.
  • AI Explorer may demand ARM64 architecture, 16GB RAM, 225GB storage, and Snapdragon X Elite NPU for optimal performance.
  • Microsoft's focus on Windows on Arm signals a shift in hardware, with potential for improved performance and advanced AI features.

AI Explorer is an alleged upcoming feature in Windows 11 that has been generating a lot of hype recently. If reports are to be believed, it will act as a searchable timeline for everything that you do on Windows. So, theoretically, if you were working on a document about earthquakes in March 2024, you could prompt AI Explorer to "Show me everything about earthquakes from the last month", and it would surface every item related to this topic, based on your activity. While all of this sounds like a game-changer, it seems like Microsoft doesn't plan to roll out the capability to all Windows 11 PCs.

You won't be able to use AI Explorer on your current Windows 11 PC after all

As spotted by Albacore on X (formerly Twitter), the source code for Windows 11 version 24H2 contains comments that hint at the potential requirements for AI Explorer. These seem to be:

  • ARM64 architecture
  • At least 16GB of RAM
  • At least 225GB of storage
  • Snapdragon X Elite (8380) Neural Processing Unit (QCOM0D0A)

What this means is that you'll likely need an ARM PC with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite platform and a respectable amount of RAM to be able to leverage AI Explorer. This also indicates that all current Windows 11 PCs won't be able to run AI Explorer, provided that the company remains strict about the aforementioned requirements upon general availability.

Windows on Arm is the way forward

On May 20, Microsoft is expected to unveil the Arm versions of its Surface devices meant for consumers, ahead of revealing AI Explorer during the Build conference on May 21. We may also see support in this endeavor from other OEMs, which is bad news for Intel.

The Snapdragon X Elite is expected to upend the world of Windows hardware, just like the waves Apple Silicon made for laptops as a whole back in 2020. The platform is expected to bring massively improved performance with a better battery life, along with advanced AI capabilities. It's just a pity that AI Explorer is seemingly locked behind these strict hardware restrictions, but we'll know for sure in the coming weeks if this is indeed the case.