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Copilot edited an ad into my PR

notes.zachmanson.com

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Re: Copilot edited an ad into my PR

#611

Post by johnnyanmac »

kstenerud wrote: post #365

The ads are annoying, and I'm glad Microsoft will stop doing it. One thing I do like, however, is how agents add themselves as co-authors in commit messages. Having a signal for which commits are by hand and which are by agent is very useful, both for you and in aggregate (to see how well you are wielding AI, and the quality of the code being generated). Even when I edit the commit message, I still leave in the Claud…

It's nice that you believe the goal most Ai code is striving for it "generataing quality code".

Re: Copilot edited an ad into my PR

#613

Post by johnnyanmac »

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #383
simonw wrote: post #371

In case people missed it in the other thread, GitHub have now disabled this: https://twitter.com/martinwoodward/status/203861213108446452... > We've disabled it already. Basically it was giving product tips which was kinda ok on Copilot originated PR's but then when we added the ability to have Copilot work on _any_ PR by mentioning it the behaviour became icky. Disabled product tips entirely thanks to the feedback.

I’m grateful they disabled it, but their response still feels a bit tone deaf to me. > Disabled product tips entirely thanks to the feedback. This sounds like they are saying “thanks for your input!”, when really it feels more like “if you didn’t go out of your way to complain, we would have left it in forever!”

Of course they would have. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Why do you think governments spend billions upon trillions trying to get their citizens to essentially "shut up" instead of improving their conditions?

Re: Copilot edited an ad into my PR

#614

Post by motbus3 »

We are not even there yet friend. Anthropic injects its own anthropic calls whenever you are doing anything related to llm call of you ask to it to fill some openai models .

Very soon the Moronhead CEOs will be paying for tons of stuff they cleared could have done in-house for their vibed aí project.

Re: Copilot edited an ad into my PR

#615

Post by johnnyanmac »

simonw wrote: post #448
da_grift_shift wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Accepting the megacorp euphemisms without critique ("product tips") is how enshittification festers.

I've not seen any evidence that these were ads and not "tips". Ads implies someone was paying for them. Promoting internal product features is not the same thing - if it was then every piece of software that shows a tip would be an ad product, and would be regulated as such.

ads usually implied a financial incentive. But that's not always the case. Technically, if I was to praise someone's blog and link to it, that would also be an ad.

Ads tend to also imply tangential information shown to you in an undesired area. If this was some tool tip and not embedded in the PR comment, many wouldn't call it an ad.

Re: Copilot edited an ad into my PR

#616

Post by john_strinlai »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #606
john_strinlai wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s rather bold to post here… it is rather nice, honestly. would you prefer to scream into the void and not get any response at all? an open line of communication with the responsible people seems like literally the best possible option, why are you actively discouraging it? > Maybe you all want to talk to Microsoft PR/legal before posting? you would rather not hear anything, or get word-salad legalese that doesnt…

>would you prefer to scream into the void and not get any response at all? At this point, yes. What has false platitudes done except cause more in-fighting? >an open line of communication with the responsible people And here's how the in-fighting begins. I'm not falling for the "they responded on social media. They're just like us!" anymore. I don't want words, I want actions. Tired of playing whack a mole. >you woul…

>Hearing nothing doesn't waste my time.

if not wasting time is your goal, several layers deep into the comments of a hackernews post is probably not the correct place to be.

Re: Copilot edited an ad into my PR

#617

Post by lpcvoid »

toastal wrote: post #497
lpcvoid wrote: post #396

Once again, Microslop doing Microslop things

Yet folks are refusing to migrate off their products/services—as if it hasn’t been like this for 3 decades already.

I am doing my very small part by migrating large part of family and my employer away for a few years now. The world is better without Microslop. Buy unfortunately I know that this isn't always possible.

Re: Copilot edited an ad into my PR

#618

Post by vdfs »

justinclift wrote: post #296
timrogers wrote: post #250

Tim from the Copilot coding agent team here. We've now disabled these tips in pull requests created by or touched by Copilot, so you won't see this happen again for future PRs. We've been including product tips in PRs created by Copilot coding agent. The goal was to help developers learn new ways to use the agent in their workflow. But hearing the feedback here, and on reflection, this was the wrong judgement call. W…

> We won't do something like this again. Microsoft has been pulling user hostile crap for decades, so either "we" or "like this" (or both) is probably not super accurate. ;)

We will never do something like this unless we get caught

Re: Copilot edited an ad into my PR

#619

Post by johnnyanmac »

john_strinlai wrote: post #616
johnnyanmac wrote: post #606

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>would you prefer to scream into the void and not get any response at all? At this point, yes. What has false platitudes done except cause more in-fighting? >an open line of communication with the responsible people And here's how the in-fighting begins. I'm not falling for the "they responded on social media. They're just like us!" anymore. I don't want words, I want actions. Tired of playing whack a mole. >you woul…

> Hearing nothing doesn't waste my time. if not wasting time is your goal, several layers deep into the comments of a hackernews post is probably not the correct place to be.

Perhaps. But I still do find insight in seeing the vibes of the community. Not as much from corporate PR.

Re: Copilot edited an ad into my PR

#620

Post by stratoatlas »

Copilot added that block using the access you granted for a different purpose. That's the issue — not the content itself. When you give an agent write access to your PR, the implied scope is: act on the task I delegated. It doesn't include: acting on behalf of the platform that built you. The moment Copilot inserted something you didn't request, using your credentials, in your name, the agency relationship inverted. It stopped being your agent and became Microsoft's distribution channel with your access. The question isn't whether this counts as an "ad" or a "tip." The question is: does Copilot have an instruction source other than you? Here, the answer is yes. Which means you do not define the scope of what it might do with your access. You don't have an agent. You have a privileged process that occasionally helps you.
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