"Microslop" trends on social media — backlash to Microsoft's on-going AI obsession continues

"Copilot for windows is a good idea, but when users were like "How does privacy work" they seemed to go "huh, never thought about that" and delay it to figure out the answer"

I said this during the Windows Recall disaster. Yes, it was a PR disaster.

The above point is all you need to know about security/privacy at Microsoft. Surely SOMEONE brought up "So, we are going to take a screen shot every 5 seconds and save it in an unencrypted/unprotected database that any user can see? And this is going to be enabled by default? Really?" And that someone was ignored.

That this announcement by MS was greeted the way it was greeted surprised no one, except Microsoft. It showed a stunning lack of understanding about privacy.

"They just seem to be continually shocked by these very predictable responses are happening."

Yep. They come across as VERY out of touch.

They'll never add it back because "Microsoft's Tali Roth argued that the feature is not highly requested and that adding it would take a huge amount of work."

But you can google and find many solutions where it only took your average Joe a few days to figure out a solution. I personally use a program called "Startallback" so my desktop and start menu are still Window 7. Absolutely hate them trying to turn the start menu into a phone's app list

AI has potential for good, for sure. In Microsoft's case, though, it appears to be running before they can walk. Shoveling it into EVERYTHING wherever possible without actually thinking about why the user would actually want it.

Yea I highly doubt it was the 2% of people that ruined windows phone. Maybe because only 2% of people actually used them? Also the fact that Microslop charged OEMs to use their OS (per device) while android was free to use, and app developers had no incentive to develop on a system that came in too late and didn't really appeal to many. So to correct you, it would be the 98% who are vocal and the petulant 2% either don't understand the situation, or are an investor. The article is spot on.

It’s worth investing in and it’s certainly the future. However, I want an OS that allows me to use my PC, i want it to run silently in the background, while I surf the web, play music, watch shows, game etc. What I don’t want is a digital human, constantly watching, compiling data on everything I do, I don’t want a PC that basically spy’s on me, faithfully sending all that valuable data to Microsoft. Do I want to use AI? Sure I do, when I want to use it I’ll load up an app and use it. Then when finished I’ll shut that app down. The 2% of haters you talk about aren’t hating, there complaining about being forced to have AI on what should be nothing more than an operating system.

Well AI hasn't taken any functionality away directly, MS's laser focus on it has caused features and projects to be canceled. Off the top of my head:

- MS has canceled several games that they believed were going to be profitable during budget cuts to cover money lost in ai investments

- The UI settings for some (minor) settings have been removed and can be only changed by talking with AI

- Several new AI driven versions of their apps do not match features with the original, but are still being pushed out

- Several programs are not getting funding and are most likely going to get killed off

You can definitely argue that these will play off in the long run and for some I would agree. And the analogy is kind of off as AI is a bigger deal and will benefit MS if they win the AI race. But you can't argue that MS chasing AI hasn't affected other products or pretend that there isn't a decent argument that instead of using money to put copilot into notepad they should put it into Xbox.

Actually, Apple intelligent is really easy to disable if you don't want to use it. MS and Google have invested too much money in something most people don't care about so they aggressively throw it into every corner of their OSs because they aren't making any money off it and they're desperate to get users.

More discreet — are you serious?

Personally, I use Windows every day and I barely notice AI at all. It’s not intrusive in the slightest. I also use Edge regularly, and yes, I use the AI features all the time — but they’re discreet. It’s just a sidebar that opens if I choose to use it. Otherwise, everything works exactly like before.

I honestly think Twitter hysteria has melted some brains — people are saying complete nonsense.

And Google is more discreet? Have you seen the AI Overviews when you search on Google? That’s all you see! Discreet, really? Or when I use Google Docs or Sheets, I constantly get pop-ups reminding me to try their AI features.

I’m not defending Microsoft — I’m just pointing out how out of touch these comments and this article are. Some people are clearly getting brainwashed by the loud minority on social media. Especially Twitter, which is honestly the last place you should go looking for intelligent takes.

I can't speak about Google, as I do not use them. Just let me point to you as an example that gets MS users really annoyed: The once useful MS Office Android app has now became another Copilot app, where MS purposefully removed file editing functions and made me download another 3-5 apps to fill the gaps. This is one example of what people refer to when they say that MS is forcing AI features on them. And this is forcing much more than "just" annoying pop ups.

"What’s certain is that today, every developer is already using AI — for debugging, for speeding up productivity — and those who don’t make the leap are, or will soon be, completely left behind."

Try writing/debugging SQL code without knowing the app, the database AND the Data Dictionary. The DD will NEVER be available on the internet, because it is proprietary info.

I think the part you're missing is the "entry-level jobs". Yes, AI is not going to fire everyone because even if there is a giant breakthrough in AI and AI becomes a better developer then humans, a human developer with this new AI will be better than just the AI. However, intern and entry-level jobs are in trouble, and it is getting harder for them to find work. A lot of the tasks that are time consuming but hard to mess up that allowed people to get work experience and get a foot in the door, can now be quickly completed by a high-level employee with AI.

To be fair a lot of this isn't just AI. Many companies are scaling back production and at the same time doing mass firings combined with mass hiring, which floods the job market and makes it much harder for new people to find work.