Microsoft Paint To Get AI Makeover – Report

Microsoft is reportedly experimenting with ways to bring artificial intelligence (AI)-powered features to the Windows 11 operating system.

According to Windows Central, Microsoft is toying with the idea of bring generative AI to the Paint app, but also implementing OCR in other apps such as its Snipping Tool, Camera, and Photos.

Microsoft has been a big backer of AI, having heavily invested in AI startups over the years, including Inflection and OpenAI.

Windows 11 AI

The software giant has also bundled AI capabilities into both its Bing search engine and Edge browser in February.

Microsoft in March enhanced its core productivity tools, including Word, Excel and Outlook, with ChatGPT technology.

Then in May Redmond opened access to its AI enhanced Bing search engine, to all users.

Now this week unidentified sources told Windows Central that users could ask Microsoft Paint to create a canvas based on their criteria, similar to how Bing Image Creator currently works.

Bing Image Creator is a tool that generates an image based on a user description.

The sources also told Windows Central that the Paint AI integration will be based on that same Bing technology.

Windows Central posted an internal mock-up of Microsoft Paint with AI, found here.

The image shows a “Magic Paint” button, along with a sidebar that lets a person enter a description of an image for it to generate. It seems like the user can then transfer that image to a canvas to make any tweaks, but it’s still too early to tell how it will work.

AI timeframes?

It is also still too early to say when, or if Microsoft will ship these AI integrations into Windows 11.

But Microsoft is also reportedly looking to add AI tools to Photos, the Camera app, and the Snipping Tool as well.

According to Windows Central, the Photos app AI upgrade could involve a new feature that lets a user identify people or objects in a photo, and then cut and paste them in other areas.

The Snipping Tool and the Camera app could see Microsoft adding optical character recognition (OCR) technology. This would allow each app to identify text in photos or screenshots, making it quick and easy to copy and paste information from images.