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.
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
Not gonna lie I was expecting something more substantial.
Yeah, but to be fair it is substantial enough. This is very basic support issue. Most users (I suspect) wouldn’t need any help with this. Any user who does need help from Copilot to change the font size would probably be further confused. If Copilot cannot handle something this simple, how in the world can anyone expect it to be useful and accurate in more complicated situations?
The article does not mention this, but it’s also not a correct solution at all for increasing text size (which was what the guy was asking it how to do). From the reader context of the tweet:
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.
I’m not sure about that, I think what you’re saying is technically right but when I hear someone say they want the text to be bigger on the computer they typically do want to scale everything up but lack the vocabulary to say that. It’s impossible to know which they actually want without more context, but going for scaling isn’t unreasonable.
Youre not the first comment that mentions this, and technically it’s right. But the fundamental problem for me is that the AI had a well defined problem - it had one correct answer. Increase text size. It failed, and chose a solution to a problem that 'people who usualy have it, want this solution".
It was just mediocre solution, that works for median of people.
It didn’t matter that you specified concrete problem you have - I want larger text. It just averaged it.
Thats the problem with AI. If you want mediocre solution to a very common problem, it works.
But thats the only way it works.
