Microsoft Corp. is reportedly expanding its efforts to integrate artificial intelligence into Windows 11 and is looking at adding AI features to built-in Windows apps such as Photos, Snipping Tool and Paint.

Windows Central, citing unnamed sources, claims that Microsoft is exploring adding AI to a range of apps, starting with the Photos apps. Microsoft is reportedly working on AI features that would allow the app to identify objects or people in photos and enable the ability to cut out and paste those elements elsewhere. Similar features are currently available in new versions of iOS and Android.

The Snipping Tool, the Windows screenshot utility, is also said to be possibly getting optical character recognition technology to allow Windows to identify text in screenshots for faster clipboard copying. Microsoft is also said to be bringing OCR to the camera app to enable users to select text in a photo.

Finally, the software and cloud giant is said to be experimenting with bringing generative AI to the Windows 11 Paint app. Paint, under various names, has existed since the launch of Windows 1.0 in 1985 and has long been the butt of jokes for how bad and restrictive it is compared with commercial products, but that may be about to change with a healthy injection of AI.

Windows Central says that if what Microsoft is working on comes to fruition, users of Paint will be able to create a canvas based on criteria set out by the user in a similar fashion to how Bing Image Creator currently works. Bing Image Creator works by users typing a text description of what is wanted and the service creates the image.

It’s unclear when, or even if, the AI integrations may ship, with some of the proposals said to be still in the experimental stage. Microsoft does have an event scheduled for Sept. 21, where it is expected to discuss its AI plans.

Microsoft has rapidly embraced AI this year, often surprising observers by getting to market early with services such as Bing Chat and the free Bing Image Creator. In May, the company announced that Windows 11 users would soon get access to Windows Copilot, a service that can understand and interact with applications, although a release date for the service is yet to be announced.

Image: Microsoft