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The latest holiday advert in a series of promotions is causing controversy
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- Microsoft has a new advert for the Christmas and holiday season on YouTube
- It promotes 'Hey Copilot' voice input and AI functionality in Windows 11
- There's been some negative reaction to the advert, and it risks giving viewers unrealistic expectations of Copilot
Windows 11 has an advert for the holiday season (it's December in case you hadn't noticed) which features Copilot – and, surprise, surprise, it's causing some controversy.
Windows Latest highlighted Microsoft's new ad for the AI assistant, which is part of the 'meet the computer you can talk to' series of promotional clips (set to the background music of A-Punk by Vampire Weekend).
These are all about showcasing people using the 'Hey Copilot' wake prompt (hence the song, which features a lot of 'hey') and then verbally interacting with the desktop assistant to achieve tasks of one kind or another.
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This is all part of a new drive to push not just AI, but voice input as the next big thing in terms of interacting with your PC (shoving the mouse and keyboard aside, at least to some extent).
In this new ad, we see various family settings, and requests that include syncing Christmas lights to music using the Windows 11 PC, figuring out instructions, and checking on regulations for the placement of outdoor decorations (an inflatable reindeer). There's a humorous slant here, and even a cameo from Santa getting a toy assembly report.
You can give it a watch below (and here's a previous ad from this series from last month, if you want to get a broader perspective).
Ready for the Holidays | Copilot on Windows 11 - YouTube
Watch On
Analysis: great expectations
As you can likely guess given all the controversy that's been bubbling of late around the topic of AI in Windows 11 in general, this advert hasn't gone down at all well in some quarters. (Although as Windows Latest makes clear, not all of the reaction has been negative).
Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inboxContact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.Some of the comments on Microsoft's YouTube clip are, shall we say, rather barbed suggestions of possible Copilot voice commands (which are getting thumbs-ups). Like 'Hey Copilot – how can I uninstall you?' or 'Hey Copilot – how can I install Linux' or 'downgrade to Windows 10' and, well, you get the picture.
I feel that's a bit unfair on Microsoft, albeit entirely predictable simply because to quote an oft-cited sentiment on social media in recent times, people are fed up of having 'AI shoved down their throats' with Windows 11. And Microsoft just intensified all those AI marketing efforts, part of which is this new 'PC you can talk to' campaign.
For me, voice input is a pretty cool bit of tech – I've used it for a long time in Windows, in fact, way before Windows 11 came along. I'm happy to see voice commands get a deeper integration in the OS (which has been happening for a while), and I think that's all good stuff which is undoubtedly useful for some basic elements of functionality.
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Where it becomes more problematic is in some of the complexities of tying it all in with AI. Firstly, because we're currently undergoing something of a rebellion against AI by a good chunk of Windows 11 users (and Windows 10 holdouts, for that matter, as another reason not to make the upgrade). So, anything about AI is attracting a good deal of heat right now.
And while voice input, and indeed Copilot Vision – which can talk you through queries based on your screen content, and even offer guided help with some apps – are useful, there's a problem managing expectations here.
This latest advert has one big issue for me, which is the initial scene where Copilot is asked to sync the Christmas lights to the rhythm of the music playing, and in a jiffy, that task is performed. Can Copilot actually do this, though? No, it can't – there's no functionality to link smart home gadgets like lights through to your Windows 11 PC, and somehow have Copilot guide you on how to work this out (let alone do it for you).
Hence an expectation bubble is being inflated here, ready to be burst if someone does buy a Copilot+ PC on the basis of this ad, and sets out to achieve some kind of similar task. Now, Copilot Vision can offer useful guidance, as noted, but it's still rough around the edges and pretty limited – so the reality of the feature is going to disappoint.
I don't think that's a great start to the less tech-savvy buyer's experience with their new AI PC, and Microsoft needs to be careful here. You can argue that it's illustrative of where Microsoft aims to get with Copilot – which is presumably the intention of this element of the ad, that it's a conceptual snapshot of what the future of this feature may hold – but that doesn't wash with me. I'm not going to advertise a flying car and later reveal that the hover-jets are coming, at some point down the line; but no, you can't zip about the skies just yet.
Microsoft is building up Copilot's part too much here, and creating further divisiveness around AI if anything, none of which feels like a sensible move.
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TOPICS Windows 11 AI Darren AllanDarren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
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