That's because AIs can't survive by eating their own output. The only solution they know to ward off model collapse is more human input. They needyou to use AI to feed the beast. And if it's built into your office apps, they get that data for free.
That's part of why every service and system are getting integrations, It's not for us it's for data harvesting.
In the end that's what "Windows Recall" will be used for. Access to every moment of every user for every app... Can you imagine the training data that would provide? An AI that could run any program ever created.
I work in MSFT although not in office org. Based on my experience, the reason is far more trivial. Someone has a half year goal (KR) that says I/my team will increase engagement by N% from X to Y. Some people, whom I don't respect, when presented with a goal like that immediately start doing this (tfa) kind of stuff. Many people, when towards the end of the period some of their genuine (i.e. delivering good stuff) bets don't pan out and the numbers don't number, start doing things like this or generally throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks.
I bet there was a meeting where someone axed the off button because numbers.
I did a brief stint in office and back this up. There’s a no malicious grand scheme, just the the loudest mouth in the room this quarter calling the shots. It’ll be someone else in 6 months demanding a different color of shit thrown at the wall.
> Based on my experience, the reason is far more trivial. Someone has a half year goal (KR) that says I/my team will increase engagement by N% from X to Y.
How is does this contradict the comment you are replying to?
I switched entirely to Libreoffice a few years ago and am still waiting to slam into that "this feature is only found in real MS Office" wall that everybody told me was coming.
I don't think I'm going to switch back over OneDrive or Copilot integration.
The only feature I miss from Word is their auto-format, which can take an unformatted or badly formatted peice of text and generally clean it up nicely.
Copilot is the most incompetent AI tool I've ever used, which is bizarre since you'd think with the Microsoft/OpenAI partnership they'd make it so that Copilot uses the ChatGPT model.
It's most egregious on Azure, which has a copilot button on every page, and anytime I try to ask it about a precise configuration question for a resource, it NEVER answers correctly. So you have to search on whatever set of microsoft Q&A platforms, stackoverflow questions, and github issues/discussions to maybe find an answer like in the prehistory of 2020.
Or how about the excel copilot which can't do anything inside a cell???? You can't call it in a formula either.
Or how about outlook copilot, which can't do the unbelievably simple task of figuring out when someone asks for a meeting at 1pm tomorrow and you press make invite to actually pre-fill 1pm tomorrow as the meeting time????? ARGH!
And we are worried about fast takeoff and the singularity? Give me a break.
Azure copilot is really something. It can't see the context of the page it's embedded in, and the message you send is limited to 500 characters, so good luck pasting a log or configuration.
It really does seem like Microsoft is intentionally making the lives of their users difficult, like they're trying to win some sort of malevolent contest.
I used to go to office.com to use web versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint.
Imagine my pleasant surprise (/s) when recently I went there, and the icons for these apps had vanished. Instead there was a giant gaping textbox for Copilot. A minute or so of staring at it, and I noticed a "Create" link on the left. That led to a page that invited me to do various things (e.g. "create a presentation", presumably with the web version of PowerPoint). The icons were still missing though.
Also notable: My work-issued Windows computer has Copilot, and Copilot 365. I have no idea which does what, and what's the difference between the two.
Readit News
That's part of why every service and system are getting integrations, It's not for us it's for data harvesting.
In the end that's what "Windows Recall" will be used for. Access to every moment of every user for every app... Can you imagine the training data that would provide? An AI that could run any program ever created.
I bet there was a meeting where someone axed the off button because numbers.
How is does this contradict the comment you are replying to?
It's hard to follow for me. Increase engagement in... office apps? For why?!
I don't think I'm going to switch back over OneDrive or Copilot integration.
I would like to multi-color a cell.
I believe Excel does this by dividing the cell diagonally and coloring each triangle differently.
In Spreadsheet, I just use a solid background and then a different color border.
It's most egregious on Azure, which has a copilot button on every page, and anytime I try to ask it about a precise configuration question for a resource, it NEVER answers correctly. So you have to search on whatever set of microsoft Q&A platforms, stackoverflow questions, and github issues/discussions to maybe find an answer like in the prehistory of 2020.
Or how about outlook copilot, which can't do the unbelievably simple task of figuring out when someone asks for a meeting at 1pm tomorrow and you press make invite to actually pre-fill 1pm tomorrow as the meeting time????? ARGH!
And we are worried about fast takeoff and the singularity? Give me a break.
Deleted Comment
Imagine my pleasant surprise (/s) when recently I went there, and the icons for these apps had vanished. Instead there was a giant gaping textbox for Copilot. A minute or so of staring at it, and I noticed a "Create" link on the left. That led to a page that invited me to do various things (e.g. "create a presentation", presumably with the web version of PowerPoint). The icons were still missing though.
Also notable: My work-issued Windows computer has Copilot, and Copilot 365. I have no idea which does what, and what's the difference between the two.