Microsoft says that the new Copilot app, added in recent Edge updates to the list of installed Windows, does not collect or relay data to servers .
See also: Edge Computing: Advanced Developments and Possibilities for the Future
This comes after multiple reports from administrators that their Windows Server 2022 now have an unwanted Copilot application installed without permission.
As the company revealed on Tuesday, the list of affected platforms also includes customer systems running Windows 10 22H2 and Windows 11 21H2 or later.
“Updates to Edge browser version 123.0.2420.65, released on March 28, 2024, and later, may incorrectly install a new package (MSIX) called “Microsoft chat provider for Copilot in Windows” on Windows devices. As a result, the Microsoft Copilot app may appear in the “Installed apps” menu in the “Settings” menu,” the company said.
Microsoft also says that the Copilot app that these recent Edge updates add to affected devices cannot actually be used to launch Copilot and does not collect user or system data.
“chat provider Microsoft for Copilot on Windows does not run any code or processes and does not acquire, analyze, or transmit device or environmental data in any capacity,” Microsoft explains.
See also: Microsoft: Removes Defender Application Guard for some Edge users
The package is intended solely to prepare certain Windows devices for future Edge Copilot activation and will not be visible on all Windows devices.
Additionally, according to Microsoft, even if the installed component makes a Copilot application appear as installed on the system, it will not fully install or activate Windows Copilot.
The company is also testing ads in the Windows 11 Start menu as part of a new experiment to help users "discover great apps from the Microsoft Store."
Two years ago, the company promoted its Edge web browser to the Windows 10 Start menu and accidentally broke both the taskbar and Start menu while testing Microsoft Teams ads on some Windows Insider builds.
See also: Microsoft Edge: Usurping Chrome's place on computers
What are the main functions of the Copilot app?
Microsoft Copilot is a chatbot developed by Microsoft and released on February 7, 2023. Based on a large language model, it can cite sources, create poems, and write songs. It is Microsoft's primary replacement for the deprecated Cortana . Copilot uses the Microsoft Prometheus model , which is based on OpenAI 's GPT-4 fundamental large language model , which in turn has been optimized using supervised and reinforcement learning techniques. The chatbot's conversational interface style resembles that of ChatGPT. Copilot is capable of communicating in multiple languages and dialects. The Copilot service was originally introduced under the name Bing Chat, as a built-in feature for Microsoft Bing and Microsoft Edge.
Source: bleepingcomputer
