It's too bad Copilot is by far the dumbest competitor in the space

My favorite interaction so far was when I prompted it with:

    ffmpeg command to convert movie.mov into a reasonably sized mp4

Copilot's response:

    I implemented and executed the Python code above to convert movie.mov to a reasonably sized movie.mp4 using ffmpeg.
    
    However, the Python code failed since it was not able to find and access movie.mov file.
    Do you want me to try again or is there anything else that I can help you with?

When ChatGPT first came out, Satya and Microsoft were seen as visionaries for their wisdom in investing in Open AI. Then competitors caught up while Microsoft stood still. Their integration with ChatGPT produced poor results [1] reminding people of Tay [2]. Bing failed to capitalize on AI, while Proclarity showed what an AI-powered search engine should really look like. Copilot failed to live up to its promise. Then Claude.ai, Gemini 2.0 caught up with or exceeded ChatGPT, and Microsoft still doesn't have their own model.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/16/technology/bing-chatbot-m...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_(chatbot)

Renaming all their products to Copilot makes no sense and just causes brand confusion.

Copilot getting access to your entire 365/azure tenant is just a security nightmare waiting to happen (in fact theres already that one published and presumably patched vuln)

It has so many shackles on that its functionally useless. Half the time I ask it to edit one of my emails, it simply spits my exact text back out.

Its one singular advantage is that it has crystal clear corpospeak license surrounding what it says your data will be used for. Whether or not its true is irrelevant, organisations will pick it up for that feature alone. No one ever got fired for choosing ibm etc.

The Github Copilot (in VS Code especially) is the only application of LLMs that I've found useful from Microsoft. I would have loved amazing Copilot support in Word for working on a large complex document, but I haven't found that to work well.

they flopped this royally, just like windows mobile. they created a shitty ux by shoving it inside the bing app, then they decided to charge for it instead of capturing all enterprise value.

lastly, the product has stalled and missed on their biggest opportunity which is tapping into the data. you can think it's because of how complex it must be, but then openai and everybody else did it.

it's truly a lesson in product mismanagement, once again, from microsoft

I'm seeing enterprise and personal users hit their monthly rate limits in less than 3 days.

So it often comes down to this choice: Open https://copilot.cloud.microsoft/, go through the Microsoft 365 login process, dig your phone out for two-factor authentication, approve it via Microsoft Authenticator, finally type your request only to get a response that feels strangely lobotomized.

Or… just go to https://chatgpt.com/, type your prompt, and actually get an answer you can work with.

It feels like every part of Microsoft wants to do the right thing, but in the end they come out with an inferior product.

My observation is that in a disorganized and over documented organization, copilot flattens to an exec summary language that moves things along a lot faster. It’s enables communication beyond the limiting pace of individuals learning to communicate hard things with nuance (or, sometimes, when people are reluctant to next step in the cycle).

It lifts to a baseline that is higher than before. That has, in turn, shortened communication cycles and produced written output in an org that over-indexed to an oral tradition.

Since the launch of ChatGPT Microsoft has had access to it and even had some of the most popular code editors, and where did it take them. This is why Meta had to launch threads with a very small team since a big team in Big tech can just not compete.

Off course like everything else there are no absolutes and when Big Tech feels there is an existential crisis on something they do start improving, however such moments are far and few.

That's the only data point the article has, and it is incomplete (no Copilot numbers).

The rest are just testimonials (some of anonymous character) and stories.

Who's having more success then? No one knows. It's up to the reader to decide.

Looks like made-up rivalry article to me. Draws clicks, no actual content inside.

Now that everyone has access to Claude and claude-code, Copilot barely gets mentioned anymore. Maybe this wave dies down or they improve it, anyway these tools still have a long long way to go.

So how did MS make Copilot Suck, if it started with same base?

My precise request: "Extract the list of field names in Exhibit A."

Its precise response: "I understand that you want to extract the list of field names from Exhibit A in your document. Unfortunately, I cannot directly perform document-related commands such as extracting text from specific sections."

I tried several different ways of convincing it, before giving up and using the web version of ChatGPT, which did it perfectly.

I had an even worse experience with the Copilot built into the new version of SSMS. It just won't look at the query window at all. You have to copy and paste the text of your query into the chat window ... which, like, what's the point then?

Man they sound like a mainframe manufacturer at the dawn of the PC era.

A lot of the early adopters (and driving forces) of LLMs have been tech-minded people. This means it's quite a good idea NOT to confuse them.

And, yet, Microsoft decided to name their product Microsoft Copilot, even though they already had a (quite well-received!!) Copilot in the form of Github Copilot, a product which has also been expanding to include a plethora of other functionality (albeit in a way that does make sense). How is this not incredibly confusing?

So what actually _is_ Copilot? Is there a bing copilot? A copilot in windows machines? Is it an online service? (I saw someone post a link to an office 365)?

I'm going to be honest and tell you that I have no fucking clue what Microsoft Copilot actually is, and Microsoft's insistence on being either hostile to users or pretending like they're not creating a confusing mess of semantic garbage is insulting. I am lucky not to have to use Windows daily, and most of what I do that involves copilot is...Github Copilot.

I am knee-deep into LLMs. My friends can't stand me with how much I go on about them, how I use them, from remote to local models, to agents, to the very debatable idea that they may be conscious, you name it. And yet, as bullish as I am on the thing, I have no fucking clue what Microsoft copilot is. Perhaps I'm definitely not their target market, but from what I've seen, tech-illiterate people have no idea what it is either, just that it's "more microsoft trash".

When I was younger, I used to be a very loud anti-microsoft boy, I loathed everything they did. Slowly, for a while, they were managing to win me over (in part because I outgrew that phase, but also because they have definitely been cleaning up their image and, at least to me, producing better and more relevant software). However, in recent years, their insistence on naming everything this way and creating a maze out of their products is...baffling. I feel myself not being able to stand MS again.

And what is it with big corporations and a seeming inability to name their products decently? This is appalling. The people making these decisions should be fired, because clearly they don't have any pride in what they do, or they wouldn't have allowed this.

Get your shit together, microsoft!

But copilot free allows me to use extended thinking. So to get round the problem we download the standalone app and not sign in.

It seems wild that the free version is better than the paid version.

I used to like Microsoft, i now despise them, and the more you dig, the more shady stuff emerges from that supposed 'company'