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Do we actually need laptops with AI chips, or is this just a new category invented to help manufacturers boost flagging sales?

Most consumers no longer need to buy a new laptop, either because the decade-old device they already have is still good enough, or because they use a phone or tablet instead.

The average consumer needs little more than a device capable of browsing the web and running basic office apps for writing the occasional letter.

As for the professional: most businesses still play it safe with the tech they deploy to their organisations, preferring to castrate functionality for the sake of cyber security than offer all the bells and whistles.

Machine learning has its place, without a doubt, in areas such as research and business intelligence. But for most of us, AI is pure hype, offering us no tangible benefits at all.

Is Copilot really more useful than any of the so-called digital assistants that came before it, from Clippy to Cortana? Or is it just another solution looking for a problem?

Let’s face it, were tech companies not constantly inventing new functionality to hook us on a cycle of perpetual upgrades, most of us would happily make do with what we have.

There’s no reason at all why we must make ourselves subservient to the hype of marketers desperate to maintain their revenue streams. But they are masters of their art, and we are not, so ultimately, we will buy whatever they sell us.