Windows 11 trims some AI features, but that’s overshadowed by a Microsoft executive admitting the design team is using… AI
follow us
Add us as a preferred source on Google
- Windows 11 is removing some Copilot features in the context menu
- At the same time, a Microsoft executive said that “AI has already helped our design team accelerate significantly.”
- The executive added that “we are even seeing designers directly contributing to code fixes” and this has caused a stir in line with the rejection of AI.
Windows 11 is being tweaked to reduce Copilot functionality, while at the same time, a Microsoft executive admitted that the OS design team is using AI to help them, prompting something of a backlash, as expected.
First of all, the measure to reduce AI, which, as Windows Latest reports, consists of removing some Copilot options from the Windows 11 context menu, the one that appears when you right-click on a file or folder.
In a post in the Microsoft 365 Message Center, the company explained: “We are removing OneDrive Copilot Summarize, create FAQ, compare files, ask a question, explain image, explain images, compare images, extract text from File Explorer context menu.”
Latest videos ofTechnologyRadar
These are Copilot actions that are tied to OneDrive, so people who don’t use Microsoft cloud storage wouldn’t have seen them anyway.
You can still access these options using the ‘Ask Copilot’ icon in the context menu, so overall this is a simplifying change for the better (although some users won’t even realize it happened).
It won’t roll out immediately, but starting in mid-November and by the end of the year, these options will have disappeared from the Windows 11 context menu.
Now for the most controversial development that Windows Latest also noted, namely a comment from a Microsoft executive about
Baca noted, “As for AI agents, 100% agree. I’m not the best person to talk to on the engineering side, but AI has already helped our design team accelerate significantly. We’re even seeing designers directly contributing to code fixes that improve craftsmanship, consistency, and quality. It’s exciting progress and we’re just getting started.”
The key part of this that is being picked up on social media is the admission that the Windows 11 design team is using AI to ensure tasks are completed faster and that it is helping designers contribute code fixes. As you can imagine, there are some unhappy people because of this admission.
Analysis: a chorus of realization
As noted, the reaction on Reddit has been, unsurprisingly, full of criticism and withering fire at Microsoft. This upvoted post complains: “We realized [the use of AI in coding]”The rapid decline in quality, every patch bricking at least some devices, major releases bricking entire fleets, and the introduction of major security vulnerabilities that are easily exploitable makes it clear that the codebase is being vibe-coded with insufficient code review and testing.”
In fact, there’s a huge chorus of “we noticed” or “we know” regarding Microsoft turning to AI in coding, as well as the inevitable accusations of “carelessness,” including things like: “And this is how Linux goes mainstream, not because it gets better, but because Microslop becomes unusable thanks to AI integrations.” (I should note that, as you may have seen, Linux has its own controversies with AI, but that’s another story.)
In any case, I think we need to dig a little deeper into the meaning of Baca’s statement here. When the executive says, “AI has already helped our design team accelerate significantly,” it’s a pretty broad statement, perhaps referring to assistance on the design brainstorming front rather than coding.
Yes, designers can now “directly contribute to fixing code” with the help of AI, but how often does that really happen? I assume not much, and that this work is more about simple interface tweaks and polish than anything else, and this code will be passed to the software engineers for full review and revision; the main hope is that it saves you a little time. After all, there are a lot of Windows interfaces to fix.
I think the hostility here is a little unfair given that Baca is just trying to be honest about what Microsoft is doing, and I don’t think the reality is that Windows 11’s interface is suddenly vibration-coded (by AI) to a large extent. What’s happening is that Windows 11 users are taking advantage of this and venting because they’re fed up with too many bugs, and that has nothing to do with the design team.
To me, this is about Microsoft’s broader failure with Windows 11 bug testing and poor updates, which is not something that can be attributed to AI as such. Rather, it is about general QA (QA) processes that do not detect these issues and fix them before release (whether the AI introduced a given bug or not).
This is really the root cause of the social media outbursts here, and the comments about malfunctioning patches and general unreliability. And this is what Microsoft really needs to fix, and quickly: it’s still the biggest Windows 11 issue that needs to be addressed.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds.
The best laptops for all budgets
Post Comment