The software is labelled Beta, but is being pushed out to existing PCs anyway because… well… why not beta something in prod, it’s 2025 after all.
It appears in Game Bar, which is accessible from Windows Key + G. You may not have it yet as they are staging deployment. I’m not in Windows Insiders, but I have it installed — so it looks like the roll out is becoming wide. Note that I had uninstalled Copilot from my PC… but Gaming Copilot silently installed anyway.
It is similar to Recall, except not all the processing is done locally — it relies on the cloud. It screenshots gameplay, and then extracts elements of the screen (such as symbols and text) to work out what the player is doing. The idea is it can help you game, e.g. you can ask questions about what you’re doing in the game at a given moment.
To all the people in this thread hyping Linux. Please remember that those screenshots capture you as well if you play with windows users. If this becomes a staple and you refuse to be AI fodder, then multiplayer is pretty much dead to you.
I don’t think it’s AI related. If you play on a public server, you should expect your data to be public anyway.
If you play on a private server then there might be rules to be defined.
All that said, I’m not sure what information would actually be problematic to share but if that’s a problem, sure,
What information exactly do you think copilot would be capturing about someone else in an online multiplayer game that is cause for concern that isn’t already being captured by companies?
And it’s worse when you remember your HR managers use windows.
Could you expand a bit, I understand that their systems are compromised, but how does that provide information to them about you if you play a game together. Unless you are just referring to the information that a server host or your friend would know anyway.
Of course I am referring to info my teammates would know too. Are you inferring that it’s fine that big corporations are profiling you based on what you’re chatting with your friends about?
I’m not saying I’m OK with it, but I am saying that this data collection on game servers can be negated by not sharing information over in game chat. The rule I follow is that game chat is for talking about specifically the game or a discussing what platform we should communicate on instead; the unfortunate thing is that this ai would potentially compromise other services like your preferred messaging app. All in all, there doesn’t appear to be any reason to stop using cross play servers from a data privacy perspective.
automated screenshots when your username is visible, like player lists or above your character when in front of a compormised player
If that is what was meant, this is nothing new, server hosts have had this information and more for ages, and your gamertag is by no means priveledged information. I am having trouble trying to figure out how this change affects my willingness to play on cross play servers, as others have pointed out however I would be wary of compromised devices with privelidged data like banks or HR which I realistically have no way to protect myself from.
Having this info because of legitimate needs to provide a service and a third party processing it with AI without explicit consent for their benefit is a huge difference.
I fail to see how this ai isn’t a legitimate service, sure me and a lot of other people don’t want it, but there is an actual use case for it. It is very obvious to most of us here that it is a data collection scheme, but the data that a game server has on you should be unimportant, if it isn’t that is a failing on you for either playing such an invasive game or a failing on the game developer for making such information easily obtainable, either way this is not an issue for gamers who restrict the private information they share.