Microsoft's New "Gaming Copilot" Is Already Accused of Spying (And We Know It Hurts Framerates)
Just when you thought Windows 11 was getting its act together for gaming, Microsoft shoves a new AI "assistant" into the Game Bar that's already sparking privacy panics and, worse, hitting performance.
You've got to love the cycle. Microsoft rolls out a new "helpful" AI feature, and the first thing everyone asks is, "How is this spying on me?" This time, the culprit is the new "Gaming Copilot," a beta AI feature now living in the Windows 11 Game Bar.
A storm erupted over on the ResetEra forums when a user claimed the feature is capturing gameplay by default to send back to Microsoft for AI "model training". They even posted a screenshot showing a "model training on text" option conveniently enabled by default.
Is Big Brother Watching You Game?
Naturally, this sent gamers into a privacy death spiral. The idea of Microsoft recording your every headshot to feed its AI blob is... unsettling. The whole thing got so heated that the admins had to lock the forum thread just to get things under control.
Now, we should probably pump the brakes. This is a beta feature, so things might be broken or mislabeled. Plus, as others pointed out, Microsoft's own FAQ for the damn thing explicitly says "screenshots are not stored or used for model training". It claims grabs only happen when you're actively using the Copilot in the Game Bar.
So, is it a real privacy breach or just a classic case of gamer panic over a poorly labeled toggle? Who knows.
The One Thing We Know: It Hurts Performance
But let's be real. While everyone is arguing about privacy, we're ignoring the actual, measurable problem: it's fucking with frame rates.
The author of the original TechRadar article tested the Dead As Disco demo and confirmed that having Gaming Copilot running does, in fact, reduce frame rates.
It wasn't a "major impact," apparently, but why would I ever enable a feature that makes my game run worse? This is supposed to be improving Windows 11 gaming, not skimming performance off the top, however small.
This whole mess is just another example of Microsoft's ham-fisted AI integration. They're so desperate to shove AI into every corner of the OS that they've released a half-baked tool that immediately scares everyone about privacy and measurably slows down the one thing it's supposed to help: gaming.
Hopefully, Microsoft gets its story straight soon and clarifies what's really happening with that "model training" toggle. Until then, I'm keeping that Game Bar firmly closed.