AI is a subject that inspires both misgivings and hope, and we can expect to see more and more AI-powered or assisted features hitting all aspects of our lives. Windows 11 looks to be one of the next ones to get a big new AI feature, thanks to leaks from Twitter and Neowin.
Called Super Resolution, the new feature looks to be a new version of existing AI video upscalers from Microsoft. Unlike the already live feature, Super Resolution would expand past just video, and would be able to upscale supported games using AI to fill out the details.
If that sounds familiar, it's because it's probably a new spin on other similar approaches, such as AMD's Radeon Super Resolution. RSR is a solution for upscaling in games that don't support other, superior versions of the same thing, like FSR and DLSS. The trick here though, is it doesn't require specialized hardware to work with the AI, making this sort of one size fits all solution tempting for a platform like Windows. However, since RSR works with any full screen game, and Windows Super Resolution requires specific support, it's possible there's a bit more in the mix than with AMD's RSR.
This information comes from Twitter user PhantomOfEarth, who spotted the feature in the Windows 26052 preview build. It's not currently working in the preview build, but it can be toggled on using ViveTool, giving people a small preview into how it works.
The major benefit here will be for the games which will never received FSR or DLSS support due to age, as the chance to, as the preview build puts it "use AI to make supported games play more smoothly with enhanced details" is too good to pass up.
This makes up a little bit for Windows 12 apparently not being anywhere close to the horizon, and it hints towards a feature-fat update of Windows 11 in the close future. While more testing is required to make sure this is as big a hit as Microsoft likely hopes it will be, we're certainly optimistic about the benefits this could bring.