Microsoft opens testing for Windows AI search

Pivot 5: 5 stories. 5 minutes a day. 5 days a week.

1. Microsoft opens testing for Windows AI search

Microsoft is testing AI-powered Windows search in a new dev channel build for Windows 11 Insider testers. The feature uses semantic indexing to allow users to search for local files using more casual language. It applies to Windows settings and files with image and text formats like JPEG, PNG, PDF, TXT, and XLS.

AI search will gradually roll out to Windows Insiders on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, with support for Intel or AMD Copilot Plus computers later. The feature will work for machines set to Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish languages.

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2. UK to unveil ‘Humphrey’ assistant for civil servants with other AI plans to cut bureaucracy

The UK government is launching a plan to invest in AI in the public sector, including AI assistants to speed up public services, data-sharing deals across siloed departments, and a new set of AI tools called "Humphrey" to speed up the work of civil servants.

The plans will be formally unveiled at a press conference on Tuesday, headed by the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) along with two other departments, Work and Pensions and Health/Social Care. The projects aim to redeploy £23 billion annually on technology, aiming to redeploy that money in a more modern way. The plans include a new team within DSIT to head the projects, aiming to save £45 billion annually.

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3. Apple Intelligence features are coming to the macOS Mail

The Apple Mail app in macOS 15.4 will be able to use AI to sort your emails by categories like transactions or promotions, as well as surface “Priority” emails at the top of your inbox.

The features have already been part of the iPhone mail app since iOS 18.2.

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4. President Trump Scraps Biden's Sweeping AI Order Resetting Regulations

President Trump has rescinded the Biden administration's executive order regulating AI, marking a significant shift in federal oversight for the technology. The move immediately halts the implementation of key safety and transparency requirements for AI developers.

Trump has criticized Biden's AI regulations as heavy-handed and hindering tech innovation. The Trump administration is likely to take a more hands-off approach, carrying on some elements of Biden's policy, such as promoting US competitiveness on AI against China and boosting domestic energy production.

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5. DeepSeek claims its ‘reasoning’ model beats OpenAI’s o1 on certain benchmarks

Chinese AI lab DeepSeek has released an open version of its reasoning model, DeepSeek-R1, which claims to perform as well as OpenAI's o1 on certain AI benchmarks. R1 contains 671 billion parameters and is available under an MIT license.

It is subject to benchmarking by China's internet regulator to ensure its responses "embody core socialist values." DeepSeek has released "distilled" versions of R1 ranging from 1.5 billion to 70 billion parameters. OpenAI has urged the US government to support the development of US AI, lest Chinese models match or surpass them in capability.

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