New Xbox AI Feature is Impressing Users, Branded 'Actually Useful'

Microsoft has just started rolling out a new “Gaming Copliot” feature for Xbox gamers, and at least a few folks seem to be impressed (although the majority remains, understandably, sceptical).

Microsoft is going all-in on AI at the moment. Following the creation of Microsoft AI, the AI research laboratory division founded in 2024, the company has been trying to shoehorn artificial intelligence into every aspect of the company, including Xbox consoles.

The results have been divisive, to say the least.

Ninja Theory and Microsoft Research's "world and human interaction model", named Muse, didn't exactly go down well with gamers when it was revealed back in February, following Microsoft’s claims that it was capable of creating "consistent and diverse gameplay rendered by AI".

Then, the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was met with further outrage, as gamers immediately noticed that several elements of the game’s artwork were clearly (and ultimately confirmed to be by Activision) AI-generated.

All of this has been exacerbated by a string of layoffs at Xbox back in July, as many were immediately fearful of the 9,000 fired employees being replaced by AI-automated systems in the near future.

Well, it would seem that Microsoft isn’t particularly interested in backing down any time soon, as they unveiled at the end of November that their Gaming Copilot program would be getting a mobile beta.

If you’ve linked your Xbox app to either your Xbox Series S or Xbox Series X console, Gaming Copilot will know “what’s happening in your game in real-time”, allowing players to ask it for detailed help regarding “gameplay tips to achievement history.”

A look at how Gaming Copilot works from the Xbox Wire blog, Microsoft

In a thread over on the r/Xbox subreddit, one user (and a few commenters) seem genuinely impressed by what Gaming Copilot is capable of, with the thread's original poster stating that it "did pretty good at giving detailed explanations of mechanics and how to approach specific quests I asked it about.”

Naturally, however, the majority of commenters aren’t onboard.

“And how many people's work did it steal without credit or compensation to get that knowledge?” commented user mcmax3000.

“Wow those are some crazy questions that a single simple YouTube video definitely couldn't solve…” replied user Ok-Confusion-202.

If you ask me, I can see both sides of this.

On one hand, I get that this can be a little simpler and easier than scrolling through a YouTube video, especially considering that Gaming Copilot has been specifically trained to offer advice on Xbox games.

But I still have to wonder if it’s fair to those who provided said information in the first place, as Gaming Copilot isn’t going to provide the sources it uses with a click (that would generate ad revenue) and financially support the creators who researched these topics.

Like with all AI-powered tools, I don’t think that ease-of-use justifies the environmental damage and the loss of independent revenue that they cause, but ultimately, I’m not your mum, so feel free to use it if you so choose.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go purchase some RAM for my new gaming PC. Last I checked back in 2024, that would set me back around £150, so I sure hope nothing has caused that to spike in price between then and now!