{"id":243074,"date":"2025-10-27T00:56:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T00:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/243074\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T00:56:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T00:56:18","slug":"microsoft-responds-to-gaming-copilot-controversy-says-it-uses-screenshots-to-understand-in-game-events-not-for-training-ai-models-optional-feature-can-be-turned-off-but-not-easily-uninsta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/243074\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft responds to Gaming Copilot controversy, says it uses screenshots to understand in-game events, not for training AI models \u2014 optional feature can be turned off, but not easily uninstalled"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft<\/a>\u2019s Gaming Copilot feature recently hit Windows 11 as a public beta<\/a>, with the company adding the feature to the operating system\u2019s built-in Xbox Game Bar. However, one user complained on ResetEra forums,<\/a> stating that their system\u2019s network traffic showed the AI feature sending information about their actions to Microsoft\u2019s servers, including private details on their screen. That set off a flurry of media coverage. We reached out to Microsoft for further details and the company sent over an official comment.<\/p>\n

The controversy began with a forum post. \u201cThis installed automatically on my PC, and watching the network traffic, I realised (sic) it was automatically sending everything I was doing to Microsoft (including an NDA\u2019d game I\u2019m playing,\u201d user RedbullCola said in the forums. \u201cI checked the settings, and by default, it\u2019s set to train on text seen on the screen \u2014 it screenshots everything, and OCRs text from in-game and sends it to MS. MS then uses what you\u2019re doing to train their AI models.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tom\u2019s Hardware reached out to Microsoft directly about the issue. \u201cWhen you\u2019re actively using Gaming Copilot in Game Bar, it can use screenshots of your gameplay to get a better understanding of what\u2019s happening in your game and provide you with more helpful responses. These screenshots are not used to train AI models, and Gaming Copilot is an optional feature that only has access to gameplay when you\u2019re playing a game and actively using it,\u201d the representative said to Tom’s Hardware.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

\u201cSeparately, Gaming Copilot may use its text or voice conversations with players to help train and improve AI. Players can adjust Gaming Copilot\u2019s privacy settings by visiting \u2018Settings\u2019 in [the] Game Bar, followed by \u2018Privacy Settings,” the statement concluded.<\/p>\n

At the moment, it\u2019s unclear if Gaming Copilot sends the screenshot data to an external server or limits it to the system\u2019s built-in NPU, and we’ve sent follow-up questions to Microsoft.<\/p>\n

Xbox Support does not list the required specifications to run the feature, but the company says it will \u201cbegin rolling to players aged 18 and older on PC Game Bar today.\u201d We can assume it would work even on devices that aren\u2019t Copilot+ certified (i.e., those without built-in NPUs). We even tested it on one of our staff members\u2019 old gaming PC with a non-AI processor (who\u2019s also enrolled in the Xbox Insider Program), and he confirmed that he has access to Gaming Copilot. The \u2018Model training on text\u2019 toggle does not provide clear information about the type of text it captures.<\/p>\n

You do not have to turn on Gaming Copilot if you don\u2019t want to use it, though. The company says that it only takes screenshots when you\u2019re actively using it, and you can also turn off the AI training feature in the settings. Unfortunately, if you really don\u2019t like it, there\u2019s no easy way to uninstall it as it\u2019s built into the Game Bar. You\u2019ll have to remove the Xbox Game Bar if you really want it out of your system, but you\u2019ll have to muck around in PowerShell with administrator privileges if you really want to go down that route.<\/p>\n

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Follow Tom’s Hardware on Google News<\/a>, or add us as a preferred source<\/a>, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Microsoft\u2019s Gaming Copilot feature recently hit Windows 11 as a public beta, with the company adding the feature…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-243074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}