The Origins and Development of Microsoft's Windows Recall Feature and Bill Gates' Vision
TapTechNews July 16th news, is the controversial Windows Recall feature of Microsoft originated from the idea of 29-year-old Bill Gates? Recently, a recording of a radio program from the mid-1980s surfaced, raising people's speculations.
The co-founder of Microsoft, Gates, who was only 29 at that time, was invited to a radio interview program called The Famous Computer Cafe. During the conversation, Gates expounded on his vision of bringing personal computers into every household and the possibility of endowing computers with the ability to learn. Gates said that as users use it, the computer will be able to learn and remember what the user has done before, thus reducing the trouble of repeatedly entering instructions.
Gates' vision at that time had a striking similarity to Microsoft's currently controversial Windows Recall feature. Although this feature has been criticized due to potential privacy leakage issues, it undeniably can help users quickly trace back operation records and find forgotten information.
In addition to making computers learn, Gates also envisioned an advanced device that can identify errors like a human colleague, and this function complements his plan to bring personal computers into every household. According to the data of the US Census Bureau, in 1984, only 8.2% of households in the US owned personal computers. In order to achieve the goal of bringing computers into every household, Gates emphasized the importance of making computers easy to use and interesting.
Bill Gates admitted that making the computer reach such an advanced and complex level requires very difficult research. At that time, Microsoft called this process softer software, which may refer to a smooth and friendly user experience.
The radio host asked Gates if the functions he described were similar to artificial intelligence. Gates admitted that the host was right in correcting him, but he also said that the word artificial intelligence was kind of loaded.
When people hear artificial intelligence, they will think of robots, those guys who will take over the world and such things, Gates said. 'Softer software' refers to some simple steps we can take to let the machine learn and recognize what you want to do.
Fast forward 40 years, Microsoft has far surpassed what Bill Gates predicted in the mid-1980s in technology. This tech giant located in Redmond can be said to be one of the key players in the field of artificial intelligence. Microsoft once surpassed Apple with a market value of more than 3 trillion US dollars (TapTechNews note: currently about 21.81 trillion RMB) to become the most valuable company in the world. Market analysts attribute Microsoft's success to its early investment and adoption of artificial intelligence throughout the technology stack.
At the end of the interview, Gates talked about his ultimate vision for artificial intelligence: In the extreme case, once the software becomes 100% soft, we achieve human-level intelligence, but there is still a long way to go.
According to Windows Central, although Bill Gates has officially left Microsoft to focus on his charity and the Gates Foundation, but it is rumored that he is still closely involved in Microsoft's internal affairs. It is said that Gates' advice is regarded as gospel within Microsoft, and in addition, he also played a key role in Microsoft's reaching an agreement with OpenAI to promote its artificial intelligence development.
Microsoft's chief executive Satya Nadella and other senior leaders are said to consult Gates' opinion before making major decisions. Long before Microsoft launched Copilot, Gates had shared an internal memo with company executives, focusing on artificial intelligence agents. This memo described an intelligent assistant that could help users read and summarize emails, although the details are not yet clear.