A new feature that is being discussed within Windows 11 with specific reference to the Insider Canary Channel build 27695 is the Intelligent media Search. The function will enable the local AI model to analyze and index your local audio files and videos, making the words in them searchable. In this respect, this function is similar to Recall the feature that is set to make its comeback to Windows 11 insider builds in October.
In Windows 11 The concept behind the tool is that users could, for example, look for something, that was mentioned in the recorded meeting, or video YouTubers could search in their lengthy videos for specific moments. It could also be used for classification where the files contain information that relates to a specific subject or theme.
Windows 11 Intelligent Media Search
Microsoft’s description requires users to agree to their media files on a device being searched. It turns out that an AI model will be downloaded and installed and that it will transcribe the user’s local media files and index them before allowing for content-based search.
It would be rather astonishing to see that Microsoft is getting back on this path once again when the Recall issue occurred. First unveiled on the 20th of May and initially planned for a proper launch in the Copilot+ PCs, the feature is notorious for capturing the ongoing activity every couple of seconds and saving multiple identical screenshots to let users search through a timeline for something they’ve been working on.
This sounds much more practical, especially when it’s possible to choose and indicate which audio and video files to scrape, scan, or transcribe using AI. To those who capture meetings or use video as a recall, it might seem like an excellent addition to Windows 11 and a relevant use of local AI. It is logical to look for specific words or topics in a long video because the idea sounds very practical.
Microsoft kept on insisting that Recall would be opt-in, and the search index database would be encrypted – but people did not stop complaining about the privacy issues related to Recall. The Redmond firm finally claimed that it was putting Recall on hold. It will be back in the Insider builds this October.
Then there are the issues of privacy that are sure to follow the rollout of the services. Even as an “opt-in”, allowing an AI to have a free pass at your local media content for indexing let alone transcription en masse is a cyber-security and privacy disaster in the offing.
It is not all that unusable, that’s true, but pointing it at one specific file or folder may well have some practical applications. For instance, you don’t record a meeting or a briefing to transcribe it, which is something that third-party, cloud-based services such as Otter. There is nothing that ai have not been doing for some time.