Microsoft has “unintentionally uninstalled” its Copilot AI assistant app on some devices running its latest operating system Windows 11 — and users, strikingly, are rejoicing the temporary respite from the despised feature.
“We’re aware of an issue with the Microsoft Copilot app affecting some devices,” admitted in Windows support documentation posted last week, as spotted by The Verge.
Microsoft said that it’s working to address the issue, and reminded users that they can reinstall the Copilot app from the Microsoft Store and pin it to their taskbar in the meantime.
But who actually wants to do that is unclear. A quick web search reveals countless forum threads of furious Windows users complaining that Copilot was installed on their system without their consent.
Earlier this month, Microsoft rolled out a new UI for its Copilot app to Windows, forcing the AI chatbot, which is based on OpenAI’s large language models, on many who don’t want anything to do with it.
“‘Microsoft accidentally fixes Windows 11,'” one Reddit user joked in response to the inadvertent removal.
“Sounds like an upgrade to me,” quipped another.
In its writeup, PC Gamer described Microsoft’s screw-up as a “rather pleasing Windows 11 update bug,” celebrating the company for being “jolly nice.”
The incident shows yet again that many users simply aren’t interested in AI chatbots — and especially when they’re not actively opting in. For years now, tech companies have tried to shoehorn the tech into their offerings, despite a lukewarm reception.
AI chatbots still suffer from the same glaring shortcomings as they did when OpenAI’s pioneering ChatGPT exploded onto the scene in late 2022. For one, they hallucinate facts with abandon, greatly undermining their usefulness as a research assistant. And they still have only a limited number of use cases, which makes them useful for only a small subset of users.
In short, it shouldn’t really come as a surprise that Microsoft including Copilot in its latest Windows update isn’t turning out to be super popular.
But then again, any significant changes to an operating system that’s been around since the mid-1980s is bound to draw scrutiny and anger.
Microsoft is also rumored to be working on its own in-house AI reasoning models in an apparent effort to lessen its dependence on partner OpenAI. In other words, Windows users should expect to have even more AI features shoved down their throats in months and years to come.
The tech giant will be hosting an April 4 event to celebrate its 50th anniversary, which is expected to be centered around Copilot — so we’ll likely hear more about future updates then.
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