Microsoft

Microsoft and five other PC makers opened preorders on Wednesday for Windows laptops built around NVIDIA's new RTX Spark chip, which ship Oct. 16, with Microsoft's own starting at $2,599. The companies say more AI work can then run on your own computer instead of a paid cloud service, without sending your data off the device. The speed claims come from the companies' own tests on early units, and outside testing has yet to show how the laptops hold up.

Microsoft on Sept. 25 unveiled a redesigned Copilot work app with three tabs: Home, for chat and handing off jobs; Code, for building apps and automations by describing them; and Autopilot, an AI agent that can carry out tasks on its own, formerly called Scout. Home and Code start reaching Microsoft's Frontier early-access program in the coming weeks, and Autopilot enters a private preview at the end of the month.

Microsoft is testing xAI's Grok models inside Copilot for Word, Excel and PowerPoint with customers in its Frontier early-access program. Grok stays off until a company's administrator turns it on, and work sent to it is handled outside Microsoft, where Microsoft's own data commitments do not apply. Frontier customers in the EU, EFTA countries and the UK cannot use it during the preview.