Microsoft has published an ad promoting Copilot on Windows 11, but it contains a hilarious error that actually proves how useless the AI is.
To anyone thinking this is “not such a big deal”:
Consider this is one of the most valuable, influential companies on the planet. They’re pushing Copilot like their bottom line depends on it.
Not only did Copilot give an objectively incorrect response - and bring into question the fundamental usefulness of the feature - I think what’s being glossed over is: They published this.
For a company that’s so desperate to push a clearly half-baked, unwanted feature - publishing an ad showing it malfunctioning is hilariously inept. It’s not just a bad look for the product, it’s an embarrassment for the company.
Since the start they have been publishing pre-made falsehoods that they should have had every reason to fact check before making a big deal about how great the thing is.
The article doesn’t really mention it and only focuses on it providing an incorrect value (150% when it’s already at 150%), but this bit that’s added as a reader context to the Tweet is even bigger blunder:
The user asked how to increase text size, but Copilot incorrectly advised changing the “Scale” option in Settings > System > Display. This enlarges text, but also resizes UI, apps, and other elements
To change only text size, go to Settings > Accessibility > Text size.
…In the video, the influencer activates Copilot with the “Hey Copilot” voice activation and then asks it how they can increase the font size via Windows Settings. This is actually a pretty common scenario, especially when the elderly are interacting with tech hardware or when you connect your PC to an external monitor and the text is just too small to make out.
Now, Copilot asks Aura to navigate to the Display settings in Windows and change the text scale to 150% which is the recommended option. The really funny part here is that the scaling is already set to 150%, so changing it wouldn’t really make a difference. Apparently in order to work around this gaffe, Aura quickly manually sets the scale to 200%, which solves the problem but isn’t what Copilot actually suggested…
Aura quickly manually sets the scale to 200%, which solves the problem but isn’t what Copilot actually suggested…
Isn’t that what almost anyone would do?
I’ve seen some pretty silly AI blunders before, but this one seems rather harmless. You’re still going to end up at the setting you need to change to solve the problem, which to me falls squarely in the “close enough” bin.
Copilot didn’t suggest 150% in the context of a set of instructions. He specifically asked Copilot which percentage to set. That was the only task which Copilot was being asked to solve at that point in time.
You might also say that this is a simple task, so nobody would actually ask Copilot what percentage to use but isn’t that the point? This task, which Copilot failed on, is a simple task.
I think it’s funny that copilot goes around the Internet scraping everyone’s info but somehow doesn’t have access to a value in Windows’ own settings
The even funnier thing is, that it most probably has, but it prompt injected itself with the word “recommended”.
