Please assure us Opus will NOT follow Windows File Explorer by adding AI capabilities

[tbone]

@bytespiller

I think the LLMs are a miracle technology, but companies are trying to shoehorn them everywhere these days.

Yes, I suggest to just ignore the marketing, "AI" is just another "HD-Ready" sticker on the box. o) It's just another computer program or remote service you don't have to use.

@bytespiller

I too have a reflex to think AI is a needless crutch that will just "atrophy the muscles", but the same was thought of calculators once.

There you go! o) People tend to reject new technology at first (me included). People were afraid of the sewing machine, the steam machine, the combustion engine, the computer and the internet as well, or at least many people were thinking "who needs this?".

There are people to this day who claim to be able to do all(!) file management in the terminal.
Think of that! o)

@emn

Why? Well, you don't need a highly qualified 'tech-guy' to do a deep forensic dive. The A.I., is doing that 24/7 and your TPM chip is certifying it's your hardware's fingerprint. All you need is prompt the A.I., for what it is you want and the A.I., will fetch it for you.

Spooky stuff.

You assume you need another program (based on "AI") to run a forensic analysis on your computer? I think there are lots of tools around for 25+ years which do that perfectly already, just ask your local information agency. o)

Regarding the hardware fingerprint, you don't need TPM for this. Your hard drive, your Windows user, your Windows registration key, your CPU, your mainboard and your Windows installation, all of these carry a unique identifier already.

That guy from the video (I've watched him in the past). He is correct in "paying attention", but he is also selling a bunch of services for "privacy" advocates. I think he is manipulating the viewer now and then, which is.. not very serious. You always need to pay attention if somebody is telling you stories and offering you a product afterwards.

I suggest to use the robot brain for "mechanical" assistance only (it's what I do). You don't need to ask it for help with your government, it won't tell you anything different than your local news show or the news paper. You also don't expect Google to list the law suites it lost at the top of the results. - This is the "know your tool" category again.

Blindly adopting a technology or rejecting it completely because of fear / lack of knowledge is a bad approach (I think). I may repeat myself: Make the people smarter, so the BS stays outside the door more or less automatically. I admit though, it is a very difficult task to get decent facts and knowledge across these days, there are a lot of malicious players on the field (including AI agents! o).

[emn]

@tbone

You assume you need another program (based on "AI") to run a forensic analysis on your computer? I think there are lots of tools around for 25+ years which do that perfectly already, just ask your local information agency. o)

Regarding the hardware fingerprint, you don't need TPM for this. Your hard drive, your Windows user, your Windows registration key, your CPU, your mainboard and your Windows installation, all of these carry a unique identifier already.

You missed the point. What this combination does is it eliminates the barrier of entry. No tools. No know-how. No training. No background in tech.

@tbone

That guy from the video (I've watched him in the past). He is correct in "paying attention", but he is also selling a bunch of services for "privacy" advocates. I think he is manipulating the viewer now and then, which is.. not very serious. You always need to pay attention if somebody is telling you stories and offering you a product afterwards.

If you have any concrete proof, evidence, or even a hypothesis on WHY this is farfetched or improvable I'd like to know. Otherwise we are just throwing shade.

The timeline and the descriptions by Microsoft match the hypothesis. First they forced the adoption of TPM, then they force the adoption of Copilot.

@tbone

Your hard drive, your Windows user, your Windows registration key, your CPU, your mainboard and your Windows installation, all of these carry a unique identifier already.

This isn't an apples to apples comparison.

What you just described is the equivalent of gim pass. Easy to replace, easy to spoof, easy to hotswap.

TPM is a cryptographic passport that is practically impossible to clone or spoof without stealing the physical computer, and it can also prove the software state. You can prove someone is dual booting!

@tbone

Blindly adopting a technology or rejecting it completely because of fear / lack of knowledge is a bad approach (I think).

It's a personal computer we are talking about. Context matters. Files contained are personal in nature. Not something a third party can be allowed access to. Make no mistake, these LLM's are scanning and creating descriptions. It knows what's inside. In Copilot's case it's taking screenshots and describing what it sees! HELLO?! Actually there's a paper about an eerily similar scenario Primagen talked about it and the source is linked in the description.

It's not out of ignorance or fear. It's about wisdom and experience.

[tbone]

@emn

You missed the point. What this combination does is it eliminates the barrier of entry. No tools. No know-how. No training. No background in tech.

If you have no clue "at all", I guess you don't do "deep forensic" analysis. You also don't program another "MS Excel" application, just because Copilot is there and throws in some code snippets for you. You need to be a programmer to make use of Copilot.

@emn

First they forced the adoption of TPM

It's not required anymore.

Microsoft Loosens Windows 11 Install Requirements, TPM 2.0 Not Needed Anymore

@emn

You can prove someone is dual booting!

How do I need TPM for this? I just look at the partitions on the system with regular tools, right?

@emn

In Copilot's case it's taking screenshots and describing what it sees! HELLO?!

That "Recall" you mean, it runs locally, it will not upload your files and screenshots. If you find a single report out there, where it's proven that Microsoft is scanning and uploading your files so Microsoft internals can browse through them, please share that. I wait for that occurrence to happen and will decide afterwards if I panic or not. o)

If you run Windows Pro or Enterprise, you will be able to disable these features anyway. If you don't have that last bit of trust left for Microsoft, then it might be really time to switch the OS. I guess at that point, any sensible or serious explanation will also not help to get anybody out of the fearful thinking.

This sounds as if I am a Microsoft fan of some kind and I subscribed to all their services. I am not, I don't even have a MS account and my smartphone does not run any Google API or service either. You just can do "so much", if higher forces want to spy on you, they do anyway I guess, that does not need an additional account, AI or TPM.

[tbone]

For those who don't like the AI in the new Windows tools, you could use AI to create tools which don't use AI.. o) This video of Dave just showed up in my Youtube frontpage (some decades ago he wrote Taskmanager for WIndows).

He is fighting the AI with AI, generating a "retro" Notepad, with no AI capabilities.

Notepad: Get Back What THEY Took From You!

Now, how can you not see the value of such a tool? o) It get's you going so quickly for a new project or prototype of application. I find it fascinating and I must admit, I feel new joy when putting code together like this. You can move way faster with the help of this code generator, get over initial problems very quickly and compare different takes more easily.

A new programming language is hard to learn and the required environment maybe hard to setup, this is way more easy now. You still have to understand the output to 95%+, if you don't, you will not be able to maintain / enhance the code base later on.

He is using a "little complex" prompt here, to get a full application right from the start. That's not what I do, I normally only try to get specific method / functions out of the robot, but however you make use of it, there is some value in there, no? o)

[David]

I watched about 3/4 of the video.

I'm glad I still study Physics.
My favorite UK YouTube Astronomy PhD is here .
I haven't done them all, but I recently was on something about Phonons and ended up learning his Quantum Harmonic Oscillator series.

Now I'm working on writing what I know of these things.
This isn't the first time that his videos have helped me.

[emn]

Tbone... your answers... all of 'em, but I'll take the first one as an example:

• I write: "You missed the point. What this combination does is it eliminates the barrier of entry. No tools. No know-how. No training. No background in tech."
• You reply: "If you have no clue "at all", I guess you don't do "deep forensic" analysis. You also don't program another "MS Excel" application, just because Copilot is there and throws in some code snippets for you. You need to be a programmer to make use of Copilot."

I say it eliminates the barrier of entry and you say: "If you have no clue you don't do forensic analysis" What? Okay. That sounds like there is a total breakdown in communication.

Okay, I got it!

Not every single police station in the entirety of the planet has an "IT guy". For the vast majority, a "tech savvy" person is already too much to ask. I wager the vast majority can barely read and write.

... with me so far? Okay. Don't get mad. Not yet. Hold on! Keep reading a bit longer.

What is most likely:
A) Barely literate policeman asking a chat: "Check for CP on this computer"
B) Every single police station on earth has access to a forensics expert.

You are telling me that the biggest companies in the world can't keep their own data safe, but somehow we can? For example, Facebook recently leaked the phone, name, and status, of every single WhatsApp user in the world.

You are telling me that the European Union testing Linux to migrate away from Windows, has nothing to do with privacy concerns?

@tbone

That "Recall" you mean, it runs locally, it will not upload your files and screenshots. If you find a single report out there, where it's proven that Microsoft is scanning and uploading your files so Microsoft internals can browse through them, please share that. I wait for that occurrence to happen and will decide afterwards if I panic or not. o)

Panic? You feel as if I'm just promoting panic? >.>
... and you expect my task is now to debunk the scenario you haphazardly invented? Is Bill Gates hacking tbone's computer the only scenario that troubles you?

Since we are imagining scenarios, how about this? Except you are innocent and the malicious actor planted information in your computer and has already alerted the authorities.

Or, how about instead of a hacker, It's the authorities themselves that do the planting. Too far fetched? Is it still too far fetched now?

... I think we are going to agree to disagree on this topic.

[emn]

You see this little thing?

If an A.I., scans through this there are a lot of my clients that will have their reputations destroyed. Some will go to jail. There is enough evidence here to convict or release people from jail/prison.

Doesn't look like much, and you will have to "trust me bro".

Some of us, use our computers to work.

Some of us, have legal matters to attend to.

There is no way in hell I'm letting an A.I., scan through any of it. Not a single file.

Not to mention this is my CRM and there are secrets here in terms of know-how that could quite literally take me out of business.

None of this is illegal, but depending on the context (or lack there of) it could be extremely harmful to a lot of people.

So, thanks... but no thanks to A.I.

You want to know how dead serious I am about it?

[Leo]

I know this is the off-topic area, but the internet is already saturated with nothing but talk about AI and it's annoying me having to keep reading this while working, so I've locked the thread.