Paint AI Cocreator can be turned on older PCs, but it won’t work
After some reverse engineering, Microsoft researcher Albacore turned on the feature on an older device with an NPU that does not meet the 40 TOPs requirement but doesn’t work at the moment.
What happens when you try to use the feature on older PCs? As soon as you enter a prompt and sketch an image outline, it will fail with an internal error.
Paint AI is fast
We have already discussed Paint AI’s flexibility in adjusting image style and creativity. Based on the demos we saw at Microsoft Build 2024, Paint AI generates images faster than the older Image Creator feature.
The result is snappier because it uses small language models (SLMs) present locally to create images.
It doesn’t have to send a request to the cloud; wait until the server generates the image and then sends it back. In addition, you don’t have to worry about credits while using Paint AI.
Microsoft has added a credit system to use the Image Creator feature, but that’s not the case with Copilot+ PCs with an NPU, which gives you more room to play with the feature.
Fun Fact: Paint’s cloud-based “Creator” feature was previously called “Cocreator”, but when Microsoft realized it could use the branding for NPU PCs, the company quietly renamed the feature to “Creator” and started using “Cocreator” when referring to NPU-based features.
