Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#171

Post by kittikitti » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 2:32 AM UTC

nl wrote: post #132

Copilot is such a typical MS product. It checks all the correct checkboxes on a feature list in comparison to the competition but it just sucks to use. It's like Sharepoint - the deathpit of all collaborative software

It's a product that gives system administrators a power trip. Imagine you control every capability of an AI and you're not qualified to have engineered it. You would give more access to your favorite departments, projects, and coworkers while keeping the defaults as restrictive as possible. I've seen this happen in real time across many different companies. I've known people who were reported to HR by them for using HuggingFace.

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#172

Post by bagacrap » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 2:33 AM UTC

codeulike wrote: post #109

pjmlp wrote: post #25

It is remarkable how during the last 25 years (approximately), Microsoft has been improving their ability to deliver first (or be among the first), followed by messing up the whole process so that late comers end up taking the crown jewels. PDAs, mobile phones, tablets, tablets with detachable keyboards, managed OS userspace, HoloLens, the XBox mess, and now AI. There certainly other examples that I failed to address…

But still, Microsoft is the most diversified of the big players - they have Windows, Office, Enterprise, Xbox, Azure, Surface - they can survive a mess like their current copilot mess and still generally thrive

Thrive, or just muddle through?

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#173

Post by bagacrap » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 2:34 AM UTC

verdverm wrote: post #153

Microslop can never be a real Ai company if they can't build a frontier model and push the envelope themselves. Today they are completely dependent on 3rd party companies, not a good position to be in.

They own a quarter of openai

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#174

Post by bagacrap » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 2:36 AM UTC

mjr00 wrote: post #42

Microsoft's focus was making it so that AI could allow unskilled workers to replace skilled workers. The hope was that everyone but sales/management could be offshored to SEA/India/etc and AI would somehow make up for the skill differential. The successful AI companies are making it so that skilled workers can use AI as a tool to be more productive and efficient.

Yeah, my experience is currently pointing towards AI replacing the cheap workers instead of the expensive ones.

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#175

Post by mattmaroon » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 2:39 AM UTC

_fat_santa wrote: post #33

The biggest issue I see is Microsoft's entire mentality around AI adoption that focuses more on "getting the numbers up" then actually delivering a product people want to use. Most of the announcements I hear about Copilot, it's always how they've integrated it into some other piece of software or cut a deal with yet another vendor to add it to that vendors product offering. On the surface there's nothing wrong with…

I really don't know what it does other than respond to emails in Outlook.

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#176

Post by fallous » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 2:40 AM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #139

toomuchtodo wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sell the risky stock that has inflated in value from hype cycle exuberance and re-invest proceeds into lower risk asset classes not driven by said exuberance. "Taking money off the table." An example would be taking ISO or RSU proceeds and reinvesting in VT (Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund ETF) or other diversified index funds. Taking money off the table - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45763769 - October…

What tomuchtodo said. When I left Sun in 1995 I had 8,000 shares, which in 1998 would have paid off my house, and when I sold them when Oracle bought Sun after a reverse 3:1 split, the total would not even buy a new car. Can be a painful lesson, certainly it leaves an impression.

Heh, I was at Netscape when the Sun-Netscape Alliance was created. Tip of the hat to a fellow gray beard. ;)

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#177

Post by MattGaiser » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 2:44 AM UTC

_fat_santa wrote: post #33

The biggest issue I see is Microsoft's entire mentality around AI adoption that focuses more on "getting the numbers up" then actually delivering a product people want to use. Most of the announcements I hear about Copilot, it's always how they've integrated it into some other piece of software or cut a deal with yet another vendor to add it to that vendors product offering. On the surface there's nothing wrong with…

Copilot in Word and PowerPoint is complete slop. Claude Code is better with PPT.

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#178

Post by fallous » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 2:45 AM UTC

rightbyte wrote: post #100

anthonypasq wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your premise that the leaders of every single one of the top 10 biggest and most profitable companies in human history are all preposterously wrong about a new technology in their existing industry is hard to believe. AI is literally the fastest growing and most widely used/deployed technologies ever.

The product is the stock price, not Office or Windows. From that perspective they are doing it right.

The investor being the customer rather than actual paying customers was something I noticed occurring in the late 90s in the startup and tech world. Between that shift in focus and the influx of naive money the Dot Bomb was inevitable.

Sadly the fallout from the Dotcom era wasn't a rejection of the asinine Business 2.0 mindset but instead an infection that spread across the entirety of finance.

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#179

Post by MBCook » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 2:49 AM UTC

askonomm wrote: post #89

shevy-java wrote: post #84

It is rather interesting how dead-focused Microsoft is on AI. Even if you look at their recent statements "We now admit there are AI problems with Microsoft-related products." (e. g. Win11 in particular), it seems to me that they really have no way back now. It's turtles down all the way; once the train is moving, it is hard to stop. It's definitely not what many users wanted or expected from Win11; nonetheless, and…

It's difficult to describe just how many people are using Windows not because they choose to, but because they have to. Whether it is because the corporations they work at only give them Windows PC's or because whatever software that they need only runs on Windows. Being able to choose your operating system that you also do work with is largely a luxury of software engineers, I think, but for your average Joe you get…

If you want games, you want Windows. Though Valve is finally chipping away at that.

But mostly it’s cost. It’s simply far cheaper to buy a Windows computer than a Mac if you just want a computer. There are no sub-$300 Macs brand new.

In so many ways, for so many reasons, people “must” use Windows.

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#180

Post by primax » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 2:52 AM UTC

mattmaroon wrote: post #175

_fat_santa wrote: post #33

The biggest issue I see is Microsoft's entire mentality around AI adoption that focuses more on "getting the numbers up" then actually delivering a product people want to use. Most of the announcements I hear about Copilot, it's always how they've integrated it into some other piece of software or cut a deal with yet another vendor to add it to that vendors product offering. On the surface there's nothing wrong with…

I really don't know what it does other than respond to emails in Outlook.

It's good for creating meeting notes and action lists in Teams, but that's about it.

MS use of AI in apps really feels like their Google+ moment.