Copilot | Bobbi Ann Johnson Holmes

Today I’m using Pages to write my blog post. Normally, I would use Word. But Word is pissing me off, so I thought I’d give Pages a try. After all, it’s already on my Mac.

Why is Word pissing me off? A little over a year ago, Word introduced a new feature called Copilot, which Google describes as: “an AI-powered assistant integrated into Microsoft 365, designed to draft, rewrite, summarize, and edit documents using natural language prompts…”

Umm, no thanks. While other people might welcome this addition, I didn’t want nor ask for it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t just ignore Copilot because the new feature includes an annoying cursor that appears to the left of whatever paragraph I am working on.

Like an annoying stalker, it follows me around the page. As many of you already know, writing is a creative process. For some writers they need to listen to certain music when creating—while some of us need total silence. Some people enjoy writing in a coffee shop, while others (like me) can’t write if someone is in the room with them.

While some authors might enjoy the company of the Copilot stalker, I find it distracting, annoying, and I’m certain it raised my blood pressure. I started checking with my author friends, who, like me, were just discovering Copilot had infiltrated their Word, and like me, they were NOT happy.

Finally, we were given an option to disable Copilot under Word’s Preferences. When I first heard about this option, I didn’t yet have it. But after a week or so, it suddenly appeared in my menu, and I got rid of the obnoxious cursor.

Now fast forward some 14 months….and HE’S BACK!

After a recent update the stalker came back this morning, but I think he looks a little different now. (See photo of the document above.) I figured I could hide him like before. Nope. That option I used before to disable Copilot disappeared when the cursor appeared.

Today I spent over four hours with Microsoft support. I ended up being shuffled from one support person to another (at least six people)—and once, after being on a phone call for 48 minutes, hung up on.

One of my author friends told me that she got rid of Copilot several months ago by downgrading her subscription. (Please note, Microsoft had added Copilot to our subscriptions, we never signed up for it.) However, when I suggested this option when talking to tech people this morning, I was told by one that a downgrade would not resolve my issue.

I was assured (repeatedly) there was a way to hide the Copilot cursor, and they could help me—but none of their solutions worked. Finally, one of the last support people I spoke to admitted this was an issue many Word users were experiencing, and the option to disable Copilot wasn’t there for everyone—something about how Microsoft rolled out changes.

Of course, no one told me that when I first called this morning. Instead, they had me jumping through hoops for hours while my blood pressure spiked.

Hopefully Microsoft will decide to stop tormenting its users and give us the option to hide the stalker.

There was a time I recommended Microsoft Office. Me, the loyal customer, around for decades, beginning when I had a PC and had to download the software on my computer, and then paid for a subscription when I switched to a MAC, even though MAC came with similar software.

And now…well, the company is so big they don’t care. Frankly, I suspect members of their team who decided to roll out Copilot this way, knew it would drive some of us crazy, pushing us to spend hours on support like a dog chasing its tail.

Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me if members of their Copilot team—the ones who thought it was a brilliant idea to throw in an annoying cursor without being able to disable it—would get some perverse pleasure reading this, knowing they damaged a necessary tool some of us use daily, while understanding it’s not so easy for disgruntled customers to disentangle from Office.

And the cherry on top? I decided to click that Copilot icon and see what it actually does, and it told me there was a problem with the licensing so I couldn’t use it!

So, to summarize…Microsoft added a feature to my subscription, but it doesn’t work. They also added a distracting icon that goes to the feature that doesn’t work, and its purpose? To annoy me.

Microsoft decided to ruin my day today.

I am an author. I write for a living. One of the tools I use is Microsoft Word. I have used Word for at least 30 years. I started using it back in the day when we purchase our software and it came on floppy disks we installed on our computer. Overtime, I started paying for a subscription to Microsoft Office and eventually moved from a PC to MAC.

How did Microsoft ruin my day? This morning, I opened a blank Word document and was stunned to see grey text banner across the page. Right where I wanted to type. I’ve included a screen shot of the page so you can see what I am talking about.

To left of the banner is a little floating icon that shows up every time I click “return.” Below is a screen shot of said icon.

After some Googling, I learned it is Copilot, some new Ai Microsoft feature that was installed during the last automatic update. I’ve wasted half the day trying to delete this thing from Word. But none of the how-to’s I’ve found work for Mac, and from what I’ve read online it looks like Microsoft is planning to charge me another three bucks a month for a feature I find distracting and I never asked for.

Tonight, I went on Microsoft Chat help and was told I was the next in line and the average wait was 12 minutes. I was hanging out for over an hour, occasionally typing messages that went through, letting them know I was still waiting. But then my last message failed to go through, and I realized they had ditched me. Nice job, Microsoft.

I would love to know what idiot at Microsoft thought it would be a good idea to roll out a new feature and slap annoying text across every blank document. While it disappears once I start typing, the annoying little icon follows me down the page like a creepy little stalker. When I get around to highlighting the text I just wrote to do some formatting, the annoying stalker jumps up and wants to rewrite what I just wrote.

Hell no! Go away Copilot. I do not want you rewriting my work. While I might use ProWritingAid to help me catch spelling errors and help with punctuation, I will not be having Ai write my stories.

Microsoft obviously did not design Copilot for writers. One common piece of writing advice to new authors, don’t edit while writing your first draft. While I can’t speak for all writers, when writing a book, each day I edit the chapter I wrote the previous day and then write a new chapter. I certainly don’t need Copilot inserting itself every time I hit RETURN.

Writing, like painting, is a creative process. Imagine if you were an artist and have your favorite set of paint brushes. One day you start to paint and discover the manufacturer of those paint brushes came into your studio and changed out all the handles of your paint brushes. The bristles are the same, but the manufacturer thought metal handles would clean up better than your old wooden brushes. Unfortunately, the metal handles just don’t feel the same in your hand and it becomes a distraction.

That’s how some writers are feeling right now after Copilot unexpectantly invaded their workspace. From some of the posts I read online, authors working on manuscripts were especially annoyed at the disruption.

As I was wrapping up this post, I got a little curious to see how Ai would rewrite my words. So, I highlighted what I had written and selected the “Auto Rewrite” option.

How did it do?

I received an error message that said, “We encountered a problem validating your Copilot license.” Followed by a “Learn more about the Copilot license” link.

This leads me to believe Microsoft didn’t activate Copilot, it just added the annoying text banner and stalking icon as a Copilot sales pitch. Or perhaps they will activate the license after they take my next automatic monthly payment (with an increase.)

This is a shady and intrusive way to do business, Microsoft. A good way to piss off someone who has been a customer for over 30 years.