Windows 11: Intelligent Media Search feature powered by AI is coming

I have a simple opinion about AI. If it is off by default and if I control my data, I might use it if it is useful. Whether Intelligent Media Search is such a feature remains to be seen.

First spotted by Xeno and revealed on X, it is designed to let users index all of their audio and video files to make it searchable. The feature is powered by AI and the idea is that you can use natural language to search for matching audio or video files.

You can ask questions like:

• What cakes did I eat over the years on my wife’s birthday?
• Who shot first? Han or Greedo in the film Star Wars?
• Retrieve every mention of X in project videos / audio files.

Obviously, you could do a lot with this, provided that you have the media files on the local system. Ask questions about a teleconference call, financial audio webcasts, or anything else that is available as media on the system.

There is also the possibility for it to find specific files, music by a band, appearances of an actor, or a certain event in movies or videos.

Does that sound useful? Not to everyone, but it certainly has more appeal than the overreaching Recall feature. That is back to the drawing board as Microsoft was certainly caught off-guard when the rain of negative feedback started.

Still, little is known about the feature. Good news is that Microsoft is asking for consent and it seems likely that the feature is off by default because of that. So, there is little to worry about for users who do not want to use it, provided that Microsoft does not push the Intelligent Media Search feature to hard or in an annoying way.

The verdict is still out on this one. Lots is unclear. Where is the indexed data stored, how is it protected, will it be synced? What controls do users get?

What is your take on the feature? Would you use it under certain circumstances? Feel free to leave a comment down below.