Thread: Apple Computers: A Refuge from Microsoft Copilot?

Last year, I disabled Copilot and Bing on my wife's laptop. Vaguely remember something along the lines of 'Group Privacy' in 'Settings', or such.

Sorry I can't remember, Lionel. I fumbled my way through the process.

We have to use Copilot AI at work as the information remains secure. However there are a few problems with it, and I'm finding ChatGPT is significantly better what it returns anyway.

Originally Posted by Slunnie

We have to use Copilot AI at work as the information remains secure. However there are a few problems with it, and I'm finding ChatGPT is significantly better what it returns anyway.

Hello Slunnie,

I would not mind the presence of the program if I had the specific need to access AI. I do not really appreciate having to click around the start of a new email message in the attempt to dodge around and not activate the lurking Copilot presence that is already loaded. Similarly, I really do not appreciate being towards the end of an email then have this text block pop-up and cover a major part of the screen as it offers to re-write my email. For some strange reason I find this just a little bit intrusive. With my recent renewal of my 365 subscription the top part of every new Word document is obscured by all the range of AI generated possible formats that I might want to write the document in.

As one forum member I found on the "How to turn off Copilot" forum mentioned, "I own my computer, I paid my money for the subscription, I use my computer in my own home - yet I cannot prevent this intrusive program from invading my life". The excuse is that Copilot is now so embedded within multiple programs that its removal would massively interfere with the efficient running of the programs. Well - apparently that was an answer given by a certain company.

Kind regards
Lionel

Originally Posted by Lionelgee

Hello Slunnie,

I would not mind the presence of the program if I had the specific need to access AI. I do not really appreciate having to click around the start of a new email message in the attempt to dodge around and not activate the lurking Copilot presence that is already loaded. Similarly, I really do not appreciate being towards the end of an email then have this text block pop-up and cover a major part of the screen as it offers to re-write my email. For some strange reason I find this just a little bit intrusive. With my recent renewal of my 365 subscription the top part of every new Word document is obscured by all the range of AI generated possible formats that I might want to write the document in.

As one forum member I found on the "How to turn off Copilot" forum mentioned, "I own my computer, I paid my money for the subscription, I use my computer in my own home - yet I cannot prevent this intrusive program from invading my life". The excuse is that Copilot is now so embedded within multiple programs that its removal would massively interfere with the efficient running of the programs. Well - apparently that was an answer given by a certain company.

Kind regards
Lionel

We are PC at work, using Microsoft suit including word, outlook etc. We don't have any of those problems. AI is available if we need it, but it is otherwise not active unless we go to use it or click on the swirl thing to open it within Outlook. Actually Copilot for us is really used like an App or website, rather than something embedded into all of our other applications. so I open it with a link and enter the request, but thats about it. Its not intrusive at all.

That said, I'm not sure if thats the way it is with ours, or if our IT Geeks have set us up that way.

All I will say is that I have been an Apple user for 25 years and I have never encountered any ms garbage such as copilot. People sook that Apple hasn't ?caught up ? with the AI thing. To me, that's not a bug, it's a feature. Apple has its flaws but it allows me to keep my computer as mine with no nagware.
That said, I don't use Word and haven't since Apple got Pages up to speed and made it pretty much compatible with Word. However I don't write for a living. But if I did I have a head start because Apple software is what I'm used to, and it is often the industry standard in areas like publishing.
And if you're into photo or video editing there's no contest. For maths based stuff windows is better, but that's mainly due to the head in the sand attitude of most big mobs. So it's horses for courses I guess. I use emulation for the few occasions where only windows will work.

Hello Slunnie,

I renewed my 365 subscription only a couple of weeks ago. A subsequent forced "upgrade" resulted in the new display for each new Word document that I open. See the attachment. The Outlook Copilot tag seems innocuous enough until you want to actually start typing. Time has to be spent attempting to dodge around the tab with a mouse before typing can start. If the misfortune finds a click happening inside the tab then Copilot opens in full flight. Not pretty! Then as previously described when a significant amount of writing has occurred Copilot makes its presence felt - as unwanted as this is. I have to open the new post into full-screen mode to be able to get around the intrusion. You know as per the forum this is happening on my computer in my home ... with AI monitoring while I write.

Kind regards
Lionel

You may find this, from a former Windows user, interesting. Illustrates the issues with nagging software.

Originally Posted by Tins

All I will say is that I have been an Apple user for 25 years and I have never encountered any ms garbage such as copilot. People sook that Apple hasn't ?caught up ? with the AI thing. To me, that's not a bug, it's a feature. Apple has its flaws but it allows me to keep my computer as mine with no nagware.
That said, I don't use Word and haven't since Apple got Pages up to speed and made it pretty much compatible with Word. However I don't write for a living. But if I did I have a head start because Apple software is what I'm used to, and it is often the industry standard in areas like publishing.
And if you're into photo or video editing there's no contest. For maths based stuff windows is better, but that's mainly due to the head in the sand attitude of most big mobs. So it's horses for courses I guess. I use emulation for the few occasions where only windows will work.

G'day Tins,

I sent you an email in response to the email you sent me a fair while ago - sorry for my lack of a more prompt response.

You wrote about Pages. I used to use WordPerfect, and the other Corel related professional program suite (1994), like Lotus 123. Then along came the supposed "industry standard" Microsoft con job for the gullible government department purchasing officers. "If you do not buy our products you will not be up to industry standard - you don't want that - do you!." Not longer afterward along came directives in government contracts of what programs you must used as part of any work contracts. Because everyone needed to be up to industry standard.

I was teaching in Queensland TAFE at the time, and a certain company representative had just left our campus. The local IT bloke told them to sod off because their product was inferior. Our IT bloke was in fact ropable. Part of the rant was how often the sales rep from a certain company kept on rabbiting on about "industry standard" in every sentence. Unfortunately, our IT bloke was an isolated case and guess what range of products soon became 'industry standard'

Kind regards
Lionel