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Yeah, they're not removing AI at all. The headline is very misleading, probably by design.
The core AI functionality is staying exactly the way it is. Microslop is only changing or removing the visible in-your-face evidence of it, like the logo, branding, and "entry points" according to the blog. So the Copilot button is coming off Notepad, but that doesn't mean the AI is gone from the app itself, much less the OS.
So if the slop of Micro has you running for the penguin, don't slow down now. They've simply learned their lesson about not letting the masses see what they're doing; they're nowhere near ditching AI.
And the absolute proof of this is that beyond the subtle absence of any explicit statements indicating removal of AI from the OS, the hardware requirements for running 11 have not changed, and the partnerships with hardware suppliers to continue to make and sell AI-ready machines according to those vastly elevated specs are still in full force.
With untold billions of dollars and years of planning and international political lobbying thrown at shit like Recall and building data centers and placing so much of their business strategy and focus on gathering and reselling all the data they can hoover up from the unwary, not just to data brokers but to entire governments in support of universal surveillance states and genocide, business will continue unchanged.
The sole difference is that you'll feel safer while they do it because you won't have the visible symbols of it in your face.
"It's so much harder and more expensive for us to slurp up your private data and sell it back to you as slop when you're all paying attention, goddammit. Go back to sleep." -- Pavan Davuluri, probably