Forget Cocreator because Microsoft Paint might be going full AI

On March 21, Microsoft is set to hold a new digital event called New Era of Work with Copilot, and it will be all about AI advances in platforms and devices such as Copilot, Windows, and Surface laptops.

However, reportedly the event will also be about Paint NPU, a brand-new Microsoft Paint that incorporates even more AI features, and no, we’re not talking about the existing Copilot, but more than that: it will leverage NPU resources to allow users to quickly draw with the help of AI in real-time.

The folks over at Windows Latest, for instance, revealed that the Paint app could get these live canvas features after they spotted references to them in what seems to be hidden .xbf files.

It wouldn’t come as a surprise: Microsoft Paint already has Cocreator, which is an AI tool that you can use to generate certain images based on various prompts. It has several art styles and several credit points that can be refreshed, and the results are quite gorgeous, the last time we checked it.

Plus, we recently reported that Microsoft is planning to unveil a new AI File Explorer in Windows, so the operating system is getting multiple AI features this year. The new AI-powered File Explorer will most likely be released with the Windows 11 2024 Update, and it will be quite exciting: Windows users will be able to talk naturally to the operating system, and Windows 11 will complete various complex indexing and searching tasks.

We don’t know exactly what Paint NPU will be capable of, but as Microsoft taught us with Copilot, the AI-powered Paint might not only help the user draw, but it could also offer artistic suggestions, invest new colors, refine certain brush strokes, and it could become an important tool for those artists at the beginning of their career, as the tool can also be a teacher and a guidance model for them.

Paint NPU can also work as a creative asset for those who want to draw but don’t have the artistic capabilities for it, and the platform might come up with suggestions, sketches, or even entire drawings on just mere prompts.

Whoever, leaving the speculations aside, we’ll have to wait until March 21, and see what Microsoft has in store for us!

Are you excited about it?