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Microsoft's PC AI Buys Your Groceries
25 Nov
Summary
- Microsoft's new Fara-7B AI runs locally on PCs.
- It visually understands web pages to complete tasks.
- This model enhances privacy with on-device processing.
Microsoft has introduced Fara-7B, an innovative AI model capable of running natively on personal computers. This "agentic" small language model, with 7 billion parameters, is designed to interact with computers by visually understanding web pages, similar to human perception. It can execute various tasks, including online purchases and information gathering, without relying on external models or accessibility data.
Demonstrations showcased Fara-7B autonomously buying products online and navigating maps. While it operates slower than humans and requires approval for sensitive actions like logins, it offers a glimpse into future AI automation. A key advantage over existing solutions like Microsoft's Copilot is its on-device operation, which significantly enhances user privacy by keeping data local and reducing latency.
Despite its capabilities, Fara-7B is still experimental and prone to occasional errors in accuracy and instruction following. Microsoft advises caution, recommending its use in sandboxed environments. This release builds on Microsoft's previous efforts in on-device AI, such as the Phi-3 model, and is intended for use with their Magnetic-UI platform, with future integration planned for Windows 11 Copilot+ PCs.
