Microsoft recently unveiled a new line of Copilot Plus PCs, powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X series processors that house a pretty powerful NPU to take up AI workloads. Among other attractions, the new Copilot Plus PCs also feature new AI functionalities. While most are standard and have failed to ruffle any feathers, one in particular has stirred quite an air of controversy.

The new Recall feature in Copilot Plus PCs, which will record everything you do on your PC has divided the users; they either love the idea or are horrified at the potential this has to turn into a privacy nightmare (Microsoft is even being investigated for it currently). But while that debate will keep going on for a while, there's another one to add to the mix.

Microsoft made it rather clear that Recall, and other AI features, showcased at the event are exclusive to Copilot+ PCs because of their stringent requirements. However, Windows watcher Albacore has already got it working on non-Copilot+ PCs. Not only that, they have got it working on a PC that has no NPU, so it's not even an AI PC.

The functionality for Recall is present within the new Windows 11 22H2 update but Microsoft says that it can only work on Copilot+ PCs. However, Albacore has got it working on an Arm64 system after tinkering with Windows under the hood. They are also hopeful that it would also work on Intel/ AMD processors, but not right now as Microsoft has only shipped Arm64-specific ML models to OEMs. (Microsoft currently had no reason to ship those ML models as Intel and AMD have yet to release their chips for Copilot+ PCs.)

Now, this is making people wonder, rightly so, if Recall is just a set of screenshots and an OCR reader. It can be said that at its core, it does seem to be. However, in the demo shared above, Recall seems to be quite laggy, which means that the system it is being used on is not equipped to handle it well (as Microsoft stated). It also stands to reason that as Recall accumulates more files and screenshots on a system, it'll require even more resources to work smoothly, which a standard PC does not have.

So, while the statement from Microsoft that Recall can only run on Copilot+ PCs is somewhat misleading, it's not entirely a sham. If you were one of the people who loved the feature but hated the fact that it can only run on Copilot+ PCs, this is both good and bad news for you. While you can potentially run Recall on your PC without having to buy a new one, you might not want to. It might use up a lot of your system's resources and not only lag itself but make everything else slow too; would it really be worth it?