Microsoft's Copilot Vision on Windows 11 transfers user data to the company's servers
Microsoft has announced the launch of Copilot Vision, an intelligent assistant designed to enhance user experience and productivity on Windows 11. This new feature is an extension of Microsoft's controversial Recall feature and is set to be rolled out over the next month through the company's controlled feature rollout system.
Copilot Vision acts as a remotely processed backseat driver, offering a deeper understanding of user goals and providing clear, step-by-step guidance. It scans everything on the screen across apps, browsers, documents, and images, providing real-time contextual insights and suggestions without the need to switch apps. This feature aims to make the desktop a more interactive and dynamic workspace for all Windows 11 users.
However, the capabilities of Copilot Vision raise significant privacy and security concerns. Since it requires active user consent to share the entire desktop or app windows, it inherently gains access to potentially sensitive information visible on the screen. While Microsoft emphasises that this sharing is comparable to video call screen sharing and that users can turn it off at any time, some security experts and users worry about the risks of exposing private data to AI processes, especially if user awareness or control lapses.
From a security perspective, Microsoft takes several measures to protect organisational data within Microsoft 365 Copilot integrations. Tenant isolation ensures AI only uses data from the current user’s tenant, no cross-tenant data leakage occurs, and organisational permissions govern what information users and AI can access. Additionally, AI-generated content inherits metadata labels for compliance purposes, and Microsoft stresses human oversight is necessary since AI output might not always be accurate or safe.
The benefits of Copilot Vision primarily centre around enhanced user experience and productivity. The feature captures screenshots only when expressly activated as part of a Copilot session. The Snipping Tool has gained a Copilot+ exclusive "perfect screenshot" feature that resizes the capture area automatically based on screen content and a colour picker tool.
Other new AI features in Windows 11 include an AI-powered "Relight" feature in the Photos app, designed to simulate the effect of up to three virtual light sources added to an existing photograph. A new AI agent is now available in the latest update to Windows 11, which can manage system settings on behalf of the user. The "Click to Do" feature from Microsoft now includes actions for improving reading skills, using generative-AI in Microsoft Word, activating an "Immersive Reader" mode, text-to-speech, syllable-break functionality, a picture dictionary, and triggering messages and schedule requests in Microsoft Teams.
The latest Windows 11 update has also replaced the Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) with a Black Screen of Death. Microsoft is yet to disclose how it plans to address the "hallucination" problem in its language models. Copilot Vision is currently only available in the US, with plans to expand to non-European countries.
In summary, Windows 11’s Copilot Vision aims to boost productivity and user interaction through advanced AI but entails privacy trade-offs requiring informed user control and robust security practices to mitigate risks.
- Microsoft's new feature, Copilot Vision, which is an extension of the Recall feature, leverages artificial intelligence and technology to enhance user experience on Windows 11 by offering step-by-step guidance and contextual insights.
- Despite its productivity benefits, Copilot Vision raises privacy and security concerns as it requires active user consent to access potentially sensitive information visible on the screen, sparking debates about exposing private data to AI processes.
- To address these concerns, Microsoft employs measures such as tenant isolation, preventing cross-tenant data leakage, and organizational permissions to control what information users and AI can access within Microsoft 365 Copilot integrations.
- The latest Windows 11 update includes other AI features like an AI-powered "Relight" feature for manipulating photos, a new AI agent managing system settings, and the "Click to Do" feature with improvements in reading skills, generative-AI in Microsoft Word, and AI-assisted functions in Microsoft Teams.
- Copilot Vision is initially available only in the US, with plans to extend its availability to non-European countries in the future, while Microsoft continues to address issues like the "hallucination" problem in its language models.
