Okay, possibly I may very well be satisfied AI screens aren’t all dangerous

Of course MSI was going to be speaking AI in the case of screens at Computex this yr. I imply, for the third straight yr that is largely all everybody else goes to be speaking about on the present, too. But nonetheless, “the world’s first agentic AI monitor” most likely wasn’t prime of my checklist for must-sees on the Taiwan tradeshow.

I’m manner out west in Taipei, at MSI’s HQ—which was initially MSI Factory 3—and I’m spending my Sunday prodding and poking a bunch of its new toys. I’ve had my arms on the brand new MSI Claw 9 EX AI+, with its fancy new Intel G3 Extreme processor, and I’ve had my eyeballs on a variety of MSI’s new screens as nicely.

The $1599 MEG X was undoubtedly one which stood out, although not essentially for all the fitting causes. This is the display billed as that first agentic AI monitor, and it comes with a bunch of recent AI-powered options. I’d say most of them are of the kind that makes you marvel if somebody advised the designers they needed to discover a method to combine as many options as potential into the display that they might grasp an ‘AI’ badge.

But there may be one which anybody who has struggled with monitor on-screen shows (OSDs) will possibly admire: The MEG X has a function which implies you’ll be able to simply ask it to vary a setting and it’ll do it for you.

• 34-inch / Fifth-Gen QD-OLED / 3440×1440 (UWQHD@360Hz) / 0.03ms (GtG)
• Built in AI Processor delivers AI Super Resolution, AI Gauge, AI Scene, AI Audio Scene, AI Crosshair, and AI Vision+ to help in gameplay observe.
• MSI’s unique AI Care Sensor detects consumer presence to robotically alter OLED Care settings.
• Fifth-gen QD-OLED with Penta Tandem, 5-layer construction boosts mild effectivity by as much as 30%. RGB Stripe minimizes shade fringing.
• DarkArmor Film delivers 40% deeper blacks and affords 2.5x higher scratch resistance.
• Connectivity: 2x HDMI 2.1 enter (UWQHD@360Hz), 1x DisplayPort 2.1a (UHBR20) enter, 1x Type-C (DP alt.) w/ 98 W PD, 2x USB 5 Gbps Type-A, 1x USB 5 Gbps Type-B, 1x Headphone-out

Now, I’ll grant you that is not a function that may have me dropping $1599 on a brand new ultrawide 1440p OLED monitor, however it’s nonetheless a function I would not thoughts seeing getting used throughout the board. Mostly as a result of I’ve a really rational hatred of monitor OSDs and the fiddly controls you are compelled to make use of to entry them.

The introduction of the nubbin/joystick management was a game-changer, taking us previous the times of making an attempt to determine what the unlabelled buttons below the underside bezel really did, but it surely does not change the truth that the settings menus for screens are borderline impenetrable to the typical consumer.

The MEG X and its FortunateClaw function, nonetheless, means you’ll be able to discuss to a cartoon dragon with crab claws—which has the persona of an over-enthusiastic toddler/bro—and easily ask it to change the brightness or allow the on-screen crosshair function. I do not wish to really interact with the wee purple man, however the system appears sound.

It’s all because of the micro-controller inside MSI’s trendy screens which lets you alter the monitor’s settings from inside Windows rather than the traditional OSD. It is simply linking up its AI software to that functionality to perform the adjustments on the fly, if you’re in a game, for example.

Unfortunately, despite the MEG X reportedly being on sale from August 5 this year, this specific feature was not yet available for demo. But I did see a non-shouty-dragon version, just using an OpenClaw interface running on the already released MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36. That’s a monitor which uses the same Samsung 5th Gen Penta Tandem panel with the striped RGB pixel layout, and is actually awesome.

There are a bunch of other, far less useful features, such as AI Super Resolution, which by MSI’s own admission doesn’t perform as well as either FSR or DLSS as it’s just running on the monitors scaler, and a specific version of that which just upscales the area where your scope might be in the middle of the screen, and there’s a light bar which can tell you which channel (left or right) music might be coming from, but shouldn’t be used for games as that might be considered cheating.

BUT give me the AI settings feature in a less obnoxious-dragon kinda way, and I could potentially be convinced that an AI monitor isn’t such a bad thing after all.