The beta
100 computers. Is yours one of them?
Turing AI OS has been proved on the machines we own. Before it is sold widely it has to be proved on the ones we do not — the laptop you bought four years ago, the desktop you built. We are looking for 100 people to install it on their own computer, try it for a week, and send what the computer saw.
- A full licence Normally £102. Free to testers, and yours to keep.
- £10 of AI creditEvery model open from the first day, the strongest included.
- A person to write toReport a problem and somebody who can fix it reads it.
What we ask you to do
About an hour of your time, spread over a week. Eight things, in this order.
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Install it
Write the image to a USB stick, start the computer from it and install — on the whole disk of a spare machine, or beside Windows.
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Check the computer itself
The screen at its proper sharpness, Wi‑Fi, sound, the microphone, the keyboard and touchpad, and closing the lid and opening it again. Settings › Diagnostics shows what the computer sees.
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Switch the AI on
Open Settings › AI, choose “Already have a code?” and type your beta code. The assistant switches on, with £10 of AI credit on it.
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Use your credit
Ask it for real things for a few days — arrange windows, write a document, read your calendar, find something on the web. Try Local AI once with the internet unplugged.
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Talk to it
Say its name from across the room, and quietly, and interrupt it while it is talking. After a few days open Voice Sync and see how far it has learned your voice.
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Take an update
We publish at least one update during the beta. It installs on its own; Settings › Updates shows the version. Restart and check everything is still there.
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Start Windows again
Only if you installed beside Windows: choose Windows when the computer starts and check it is as you left it.
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Send what the computer saw
Settings › Diagnostics › Send everything — once, even if nothing went wrong, because a machine where it all worked is as useful to us as one where it did not. Then answer the eight questions on your beta page.
What happens to your disk
Installing an operating system changes a disk, and this is a beta. Read this part slowly.
- “Standard” erases the whole disk — Windows and every file on it. It is the right choice on a spare computer and the wrong one anywhere else.
- To keep Windows, choose Partition the disks, then Install alongside Windows. Windows is made smaller, Turing AI OS goes in the room that leaves — it needs 28 GB — and the computer asks which to start each time.
- Before installing beside Windows, shut Windows down properly: hold Shift while you click Shut down. If Windows has BitLocker or device encryption on, turn it off there first and let it finish. The installer checks both, and where it cannot make room safely it does not offer the choice and says why.
- The last screen lists what will change, disk by disk, in plain words, before anything is written. If it says something is erased that you meant to keep, go back. Nothing has happened until you tick the box on it.
- Shrinking a partition always carries some risk, even done right. That is why the backup comes first.
It runs on ordinary PCs with a 64-bit Intel or AMD processor, and Secure Boot can stay on. It does not run on a Mac with Apple silicon, a Chromebook, or a tablet with an ARM processor. The full install guide.
What your computer tells us
The point of the beta is the report: what your computer is made of, and what went wrong on it. It is sent when you press a button in Settings › Diagnostics, never before, and the same two lists are shown there above the button.
Every report is stripped of personal data on your computer, before it leaves. The only two identifiers sent are the computer's ID and its licence, and you can read the whole report before it goes.
Sent
- This computer: its make and model, processor, graphics, memory, disks and how full they are, its sound devices, and its version of Turing OS.
- What went wrong: the errors and warnings this computer wrote down, and which programs and services failed.
- What you choose to add: your description and a picture of your screen, exactly as you give them. Leave out anything private.
- This computer's ID and licence, so Turing knows which computer the report is from and can answer you.
Never sent
- Your name, your login and the name of this computer.
- Your files and folders, and what they are called.
- Your mail, who you write to, and what you said to the assistant.
- Who the assistant sent mail to, which files it changed and which websites it opened.
- Passwords, keys, Wi‑Fi names, web addresses, network addresses and serial numbers.
- Your voice. No recording of anything you said is ever part of a report.
Speech is understood on the computer itself and no recording is kept. This form asks for your email address so we can invite you and answer you; we use it for the beta and nothing else, and remove it if you ask.
The machines we are looking for
The 100 places are shared out by make, roughly as computers are sold, so that the beta covers what people own. 100 of 100 are still open. A make that is full still takes requests — a place opens when somebody drops out, and at the next wave.
| Make | Places open | |
|---|---|---|
| Lenovo | 22 of 22 | |
| HP | 19 of 19 | |
| Dell | 16 of 16 | |
| Asus | 9 of 9 | |
| Acer | 8 of 8 | |
| Apple (Intel Macs only) | 5 of 5 | |
| MSI | 4 of 4 | |
| Microsoft Surface | 3 of 3 | |
| Samsung | 2 of 2 | |
| A desktop built from parts | 8 of 8 | |
| Another make | 4 of 4 |