- Microsoft posted a simple flex about Copilot on X
- It read: “Copilot finishing your code before you finish your coffee.”
- The ensuing responses are quite something to scroll through, including comments on whether this is why Windows 11’s updates are so buggy
Microsoft is intent on pushing the strengths of AI – as Windows 11 is firmly headed for a future of Copilot and various AI agents – and a fresh post on X is causing yet more controversy.
In case you missed it, there’s been quite a negative reaction from many quarters around recent revelations of the new AI features Microsoft is bringing to Windows 11 (including agentic AI, one of the latest buzzwords).
Ignoring that rage in rather unwise fashion, as Windows Latest reports, the official Microsoft account on X posted a simple flex as follows: “Copilot finishing your code before you finish your coffee.”
Intel was on board with the idea immediately, with Team Blue’s business account on X replying to say: “Now THAT’S productivity!”
Unfortunately for Microsoft, almost everyone else posting a reply was not so happy. Indeed, some of the myriad ripostes to Microsoft’s boast are so cold, if words could be used as exotic cooling for a record-breaking overclock attempt, we’d have a 10GHz CPU in town (well, not quite, but you get the point).
The first comeback posted, in fact, is a touch of minor genius courtesy of a graphic designer: “I can finish my coffee before right click > task manager opens.”
And then cue the many people who can’t resist asking if this is why Windows 11 is being broken after every update, or whether Copilot is finishing Windows 11 code and how that would explain a lot.
Analysis: timing is everything
There are a lot of comments about whether Copilot finishing code is anything to do with the state of Windows 11 and bugs, in fact, but this isn’t a new thing. In pretty much every post I’ve seen on the likes of Reddit or X that’s about a Windows update that has a bug, somebody has at some point chimed in to say that it’s probably AI which is to blame. This all goes back to earlier this year when CEO Satya Nadella informed us that up to 30% of Microsoft’s coding was carried out by AI.
So, at a time when there’s an active backlash still reverberating across online forums everywhere, caused by how Microsoft is driving to get more AI into Windows 11, you can see how it looks pretty tone deaf for the company’s social media staffers to be posting something like this. This is the problem with what’s happened here, regardless of Copilot’s actual coding competency, or lack of it, which is the other major source of the pot-shots taken in replies to Microsoft’s post.
Regarding the latter, no doubt Copilot, or AI more broadly, can be a useful tool when coding. Programmers do use it for more grunt-work type of tasks, although among coders, there are arguments and doubts over even using AI for that (and how it promotes bad practice in general).
The broader worry is that using AI to help with coding is going to make people lazy over time, and erode fundamental skills – ultimately leading to a programming world where AI takes over more, and humans increasingly struggle to understand the code and be able to effectively troubleshoot it when problems arise.
All of which sound like valid concerns, but for now, Microsoft simply needs to dampen down the outright enthusiasm for AI features and read the room. Because those recent developments with Windows 11 are still leaving some people feeling stung about where all this is going – and why Microsoft isn’t addressing what they see as much more pressing issues in Windows 11, namely fixing existing problems and cracking down on bugs.
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