Microsoft Copilot is incompetent at solving computer issues.

[Shermann]

I've tried to use Copilot to save me time resolving minor Windows 10 aggravations. Recently Microsoft added a Copilot application icon to my taskbar. This icon sucked because it wouldn't actually run Copilot and was just a crappy shell around the Edge browser. However, it wasn't immediately obvious how to remove it. Copilot hallucinated about various Copilot taskbar settings that didn't exist and even tried to steer me towards hacking the registry (!) In reality it was just a pinned shortcut that you could unpin like any other.

That's not the interesting part. What's interesting is how this highlights the major shortcomings of AI. So many of these common computer issues have bogus solutions posted and reposted all over the web at places like Reddit and Stack Overflow. A skilled reader can separate the wheat from the chaff, but AI regurgitates low-quality generic solutions like restarting the computer and reinstalling applications. AI can't reason and employs a sophisticated pattern-matching strategy which seems to always get bamboozled by the charlatans.

[canetoad]

1. Yep. I disabled it

As soon as it was 'updated'. I have more computer flying hours than bloody Co-pilot.

[dgauss]

2. In all my years of using Windows, there hasn't been one single time

where any windows help with "diagnosing the problem" has been any help at all. Not one single time. If Copilot is somehow building off that help knowledge base I wouldn't be surprised if it's worthless.

[Shermann]

3. Copilot is mostly harmless.

That said, I'd think long and hard about following any AI-generated procedures which employ the registry editor.