It may finally be starting to dawn on Microsoft that shoving AI in its loyal customers’ faces at all costs might not be the right move.
Among gamers, who have watched the AI industry’s run on computer hardware make PC components horrendously unaffordable in a matter of a year or two, AI has turned more into a derogatory slur than a selling point.
Microsoft’s Xbox CEO Asha Sharma appears to have taken this new reality to heart, announcing in a Tuesday tweet that the ailing gaming platform would “begin winding down” the company’s Copilot AI chatbot on mobile and “development” on console.
The response was rapturous, to say the least, with netizens jokingly crowning her as the new Xbox savior.
“Rest in p**s, Copilot,” one user replied.
“Everybody likes that,” one Reddit user wrote, referencing a popular video game meme.
The overwhelming positive reaction to Sharma’s announcement highlights a massive growing backlash to AI — and how swinging the other way can make for an easy PR win.
Microsoft has plenty of work left to do in that department. It has quickly established itself as a major target of this backlash, earning it the pejorative nickname “Microslop” for stuffing AI features into its Windows operating system.
The company first announced Xbox Gaming Copilot in September, an AI feature meant to provide gamers with walkthroughs or a way to get past challenging levels, while recommending other games. In March, roughly a month after Sharma joined the company, the Xbox team promised that the feature would be rolling out “later this year,” drawing derision online.
“The AI will continue to impose itself until morale improves,” one Reddit user joked at the time.
“I’m tired boss,” another lamented.
Apart from pausing Copilot development for Xbox, Sharma announced that Microsoft would be reducing recent price hikes of Xbox’s flagship Game Pass subscription service, another move indicating that the new exec was actively listening to user complaints. The subscription has skyrocketed in price over the last year, alienating countless gamers and putting the business into a precarious position.
Despite the latest decision, Microsoft still has clear work to do to undo the damage its AI-uber-alles approach has done.
“She has a long way to go to win back consumer goodwill for most Xbox fans, but it is nice to see her making an effort I guess,” one user wrote.
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