Microsoft told Windows Latest that Copilot is meant for all use cases, not just “entertainment,” after users spotted a terms-of-use page with contradictory details.
In a terms-of-use document, Microsoft stated that Copilot can make mistakes and that it’s only for entertainment purposes. It also added that Copilot shouldn’t be trusted for everything you may ask, and it may not work as intended. In fact, Microsoft warned that you should use “Copilot at your own risk.”
It might sound alarming at first, but it’s quite normal for AI companies to be careful with product language on a terms-of-use page. However, in this case, the fact that Copilot is described as being for “entertainment purposes only” feels odd, actually very odd, even for a legal document.
This disclaimer was first noticed by users on Reddit, and it’s still live on the company’s website. If you don’t want to go through the long document, look at the screenshot of the “Important Disclosures and Warnings” section below, where it’s clearly stated in bold letters that Copilot is for entertainment only.
“It can make mistakes, and it may not work as intended. Don’t rely on Copilot for important advice. Use Copilot at your own risk,” the company explained.
In a statement to Windows Latest, Microsoft clarified that Copilot is for all use cases, not just for fun or parties, and said the document is outdated because it was created when Copilot was part of Bing as Bing Chat.
“The ‘entertainment purposes’ phrasing is legacy language from when Copilot originally launched as a search companion service in Bing. As the product has evolved, that language is no longer reflective of how Copilot is used today and will be altered with our next update,” Microsoft told Windows Latest.
At one point, when Copilot was Bing Chat and going viral, and large language models were only beginning to gain traction, Microsoft wanted you to consider it an entertainment tool only. Is that still true? No, according to Microsoft officials.
Copilot now has tools that make you more productive, such as the ability to turn your documentation into a quick, engaging document, create podcasts from long texts, and even control Windows 11.
Microsoft says it’ll update the documentation to reflect Copilot’s recent changes.
Copilot is not winning the AI race yet
The AI race has not been decided yet, but if you look at the numbers we have available publicly from companies like SimilarWeb, Copilot is nowhere to be found.
In fact, one dataset suggests that Copilot on the web is losing market share, and even Perplexity, which is a startup with a much smaller team, is ahead of Microsoft’s AI.
Again, we don’t know how many consumers use Copilot’s Windows 11 app or the numbers on platforms that cannot be tracked by public companies, such as Copilot in Edge, Copilot in other Windows apps, and similar places.
Regardless, what do you think about Microsoft’s Copilot? Is it only for entertainment, or does it actually help you get things done?
In my personal experience, I’ve had great help from Microsoft 365 Copilot when I was working on Excel and PowerPoint on the same project, but Copilot’s consumer app fails to impress me and is lackluster, especially after Microsoft ditched native code for WebView.
