Microsoft Paint could soon get AI-enhanced features on Windows 11

Microsoft Paint could be the next Windows app to get the AI treatment. According to a report from Windows Central, Microsoft is exploring ways to bring AI-powered features to the app in Windows 11, which could include the ability to generate a canvas based on a text prompt.

Sources tell Windows Central that the AI feature will be powered by the same technology behind Bing’s Image Creator, a tool that spits out an image based on your description. You can see how the integration might look in what appears to be an internal mock-up posted by Windows Central.

The image shows a “Magic Paint” button, along with a sidebar that lets you enter a description of an image for it to generate. It seems like you can then transfer that image to your canvas, where you can make further tweaks to it, but it’s still too early to tell how exactly it’ll work.

In addition to Paint, Windows Central reports that Microsoft is looking to add AI tools to Photos, the Camera app, and the Snipping Tool as well. For Photos, that could involve a new feature that lets you identify people or objects in a photo, and then cut and paste them in other areas.

As for the Snipping Tool and the Camera app, Microsoft may add optical character recognition (OCR) technology to both, according to Windows Central. This could potentially allow each app to identify text in photos or screenshots, which would make it far easier to copy and paste information from these files.

It’s still not clear whether Microsoft will actually release any of these features, but it wouldn’t be all that surprising given just how many AI tools the company has launched within the past year.