It didn't realize I was replying to someone else. The person I thought I was replying to was on a 4790K.

This change isn't a problem at all, just like the Nazis interior decor wasn't a problem. AI needing certain instructions to run well isn't unreasonable at all. They are using these instructions and resources to provide a service. This isn't them wasting resources unnecessarily, presumably they are only used if you engage those services. Don't get me wrong Microsoft does waste resources but this isn't an example of that afaik.

What you and others are doing is a motte and bailey argument. First you say these AI requirements are unreasonable, then I say actually they aren't unreasonable at all and is well exceeded by the actual Windows 11 requirements or most machines made in the last 10 years, then you counter that the Windows 11 is slow and has unreasonable requirements. Do you see how the first and second points are unrelated? The general Windows 11 requirements are way more strict than requiring SSE 4.2. any PC back to like 1st or 2nd gen will have the needed instructions. Maybe the 16 GB requirement is a bit more than some people have, but it's not a large amount either and you can just keep using it without the AI features.