Walk into any Best Buy this weekend and you'll see them: laptops stamped with a shiny "Copilot+" badge, promising artificial intelligence baked right into the hardware.
Microsoft and its partners have spent the past year telling Americans these machines represent the biggest leap since the smartphone.
The reality, so far, is far more ordinary.
A Copilot+ PC includes a dedicated neural processing unit, or NPU, a chip designed to handle AI tasks on your device instead of in a distant data center.
That sounds impressive until you ask what it does.
Live Captions translates audio in real time.
Recall takes screenshots of nearly everything you do so you can search your own history later.
These machines routinely cost $200 to $400 more than comparable laptops without the AI branding, and that premium comes during a stretch when grocery bills and rent have Americans cutting back on everything.
Consumers are being asked to fund a technology roadmap that manufacturers admit is still under construction.
Then there's Recall, the feature that sparked genuine backlash.
Security researchers quickly demonstrated how the screenshot archive could expose passwords, financial records, and private messages.
Microsoft delayed the rollout, then reworked it with encryption and opt-in controls.
The episode revealed something uncomfortable: in the rush to ship AI features first, basic safeguards became an afterthought.
Your laptop now watches you, and you're paying extra for the privilege.
Best Buy shelves now mix Copilot+ models with standard laptops under signage that blurs the difference.
Shoppers who don't follow chip roadmaps closely, which is most of us, can easily walk out with a machine they don't fully understand and features they may never use.
American consumers have become the testing ground for every tech company's AI ambitions.
We bought smart speakers that mostly set timers.
We bought 3D TVs that died within a decade.
We bought metaverse headsets that gathered dust.
Each time, the marketing promised transformation, and each time, the gap between demo and daily life stayed wide.
AI PCs are following the same playbook, just with better press conferences.
If you're already shopping for a laptop and find a Copilot+ model at a fair price, the NPU won't hurt you.
Battery life on the newest chips is genuinely strong, and the displays are sharp.
But buying one specifically for AI features today is like buying a 4K television in 2008.
Wait for software that justifies the silicon, wait for prices to fall, and wait for Microsoft to prove Recall and its successors can be trusted.
It just hasn't yet, and pretending otherwise mostly benefits the companies cashing your check.
Our take: Americans shouldn't feel obligated to subsidize a promise.
Buy the laptop that fits your budget and your actual needs, not the one with the flashiest badge.
Final Thoughts
When the features catch up to the hype, the hardware will still be there, and it will cost less.