The software is labelled Beta, but is being pushed out to existing PCs anyway because… well… why not beta something in prod, it’s 2025 after all.
It appears in Game Bar, which is accessible from Windows Key + G. You may not have it yet as they are staging deployment. I’m not in Windows Insiders, but I have it installed — so it looks like the roll out is becoming wide. Note that I had uninstalled Copilot from my PC… but Gaming Copilot silently installed anyway.
It is similar to Recall, except not all the processing is done locally — it relies on the cloud. It screenshots gameplay, and then extracts elements of the screen (such as symbols and text) to work out what the player is doing. The idea is it can help you game, e.g. you can ask questions about what you’re doing in the game at a given moment.
but Gaming Copilot silently installed anyway.
Well how else are they going to get training data?
Windows is just malware at this point. No matter how much spyware junk you turn off, there is always more to come in the next update.
If someone somehow wants to test this locally I suggest
- install locally a vision model, e.g. Moondream (which Ollama supports but alternatives too), then
- take a screenshot of your game,
- write a prompt like “How can I play this game better”
- query the vision model with the image and your prompt
marvel at how pointless and costly the whole setup is and how a basic query on e.g. DuckDuckGo with “game name” + prompt would yield way WAY better results from actual human, uninstall the whole, keep on playing with your actual brain.
At least now you can say you tried before you complain, rightfully, that it sucks.
For more check https://fabien.benetou.fr/Content/SelfHostingArtificialIntelligence
PS: I didn’t actually try this, I’m too lazy for that right how but feel free to report back if you do!
it’s funny how they basically present games as a chore you need to do and need all means you can get to just get through them
if it’s unpleasant to figure out and play why bother?
I have been balls deep in some copilot studio stuff over the past week. It is legitimately one of the worst applications I’ve use in my life. In a business environment, there is no security unless you pay for premium licenses for every user that touches a managed environment. That’s $30 per user per month for basic security. If you have one agent that 1000 employees may use, that’s baseline $30k per month. If you don’t have a managed environment, the anybody in your organization with a copilot license (not copilot studio) can login to the default environment, create agents, and share them indiscriminately. There is no middle ground.
Fuck everything about Microsoft. I really hope that AI kills them.
In a business environment, there is no security unless you pay for premium licenses for every user that touches a managed environment. That’s $30 per user per month for basic security. If you have one agent that 1000 employees may use, that’s baseline $30k per month. If you don’t have a managed environment, the anybody in your organization with a copilot license (not copilot studio) can login to the default environment, create agents, and share them indiscriminately. There is no middle ground.
This is all 100% incorrect btw.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/microsoft-365-copilot/pricing/enterprise
The software is labelled Beta, but is being pushed out to existing PCs anyway because… well… why not beta something in prod, it’s 2025 after all.
G-mail was beta for like 15 years while billions of people used it. The “beta” label doesn’t mean not ready for prod, hasn’t for decades at this point.
As with everything else copilot related, this is optional. It can be completely disabled, and I’m pretty sure it’s disabled by default. Mountain out of a molehill.
That’s great we really need to get the AIs playing the game for me so I’ll have more time to spend on things I enjoy: like standing in the bread line.
Every day I’m happier I switched to the penguin
Penguin is a nickname for Linux, just letting people know.
much appreciated Peter!
Excuse me, I find that offensive. We are publicly known as “friends of Tux”
Some of us prefer “light in the bootloader” as a euphemism
I’m happily typing this from a Linux machine but it pisses me off that the vast majority of people will be OK with this, won’t know about it, or won’t care.
Big Tech has learned how to perfectly boil the frog.
privacy zuckering
I feel like you don’t even understand what this is going by what you just said. Unless you literally turn this feature on, then open the Xbox game bar and go to the widget and select to use it - it’s not just some “always on” thing, you have to open it to use it - then it doesn’t do anything.
Where is the issue?
I intentionally installed the Xbox Game Bar a few years ago. After doing so, it associated my Xbox login with my Windows PC, and linked the 2, switching my Windows10 user to my Xbox login.
Hard pass.
My response was to switch to Linux.
the vast majority of people will be OK with this
I don’t think the vast majority of Windows users are even aware of the Xbox Game Bar to begin with, let alone all the features there.
I’m so happy I fully moved to Linux 15 years ago.
To all the people in this thread hyping Linux. Please remember that those screenshots capture you as well if you play with windows users. If this becomes a staple and you refuse to be AI fodder, then multiplayer is pretty much dead to you.
I don’t think it’s AI related. If you play on a public server, you should expect your data to be public anyway.
If you play on a private server then there might be rules to be defined.
All that said, I’m not sure what information would actually be problematic to share but if that’s a problem, sure,
- play only of private servers than ban such AI tools (basically consider it cheating, which is arguably IMHO but I agree on the negative side effects)
- make a new account for multiplayer that has no public link with your identity
What information exactly do you think copilot would be capturing about someone else in an online multiplayer game that is cause for concern that isn’t already being captured by companies?
Could you expand a bit, I understand that their systems are compromised, but how does that provide information to them about you if you play a game together. Unless you are just referring to the information that a server host or your friend would know anyway.
automated screenshots when your username is visible, like player lists or above your character when in front of a compormised player
If that is what was meant, this is nothing new, server hosts have had this information and more for ages, and your gamertag is by no means priveledged information. I am having trouble trying to figure out how this change affects my willingness to play on cross play servers, as others have pointed out however I would be wary of compromised devices with privelidged data like banks or HR which I realistically have no way to protect myself from.
And it’s worse when you remember your HR managers use windows.
One of the most useless feature I’ve ever heard of.
One of the most useless feature I’ve ever heard of.
So far! Check the “news” again in 5min and be prepared for worse.
It’s basically game guides available at your fingertips while you’re playing games. Seems pretty useful to lots of people that play games and get stuck and need help, no?
At some point tech companies stopped focusing on what customers want/need, and started chasing their own delusions on what the next big thing is that will make them money. Solutions in search of problems, with billions of dollars of hype and marketing behind them. Crypto, NFTs, the metaverse, AI… it’s sad to see.
It’s not just a tech company thing. Companies are utterly divorced from what customers want now. The only thing that matters is shareholders, and shareholders run on vibes and delusion. From chip makers to coffee makers, if actively pissing off the customers made the stocks go up, they’d do it.
be careful what you type in game chat, your fellow players may now have copilots
You do know that basically every single online game that you play records all text and voice chat, right?
ofc, and now it will additionally go to ms by default for whatever purpose, no matter if you are ms user or not
No it won’t. It can only look at what is on the screen of the person using it.
It also makes no sense to use for multiplayer games.
Everytime I hear the name “Game Bar” all I can think of is this.
