Microsoft's Gaming Copilot watches you game and captures that data for 'model training'

It's no secret that Microsoft is currently looking to inject AI tools and features into all areas of its Windows 11 operating system. This includes the PC gaming side of the OS and the Xbox App, which now features a Gaming Copilot chatbot and AI assistant that can be used for information, tips, and even feedback on what you're seeing on-screen.

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Still listed as being in Beta, Gaming Copilot is already a staple feature of the Xbox App on PC, with the tool popping up the moment you bring up the Xbox 'Game Bar' overlay. However, it seems that whether you're using it or not, Microsoft is actively recording, capturing, and analyzing screenshots of your PC gaming and sending all the text data to the company for training purposes. That is, Microsoft is reportedly training its Gaming Copilot AI tool with your data and screenshots of your PC gaming.

This training option, which sends your data to Microsoft, is enabled by default, too. This was spotted by ResetEra user 'RedbullCola' (via Wccftech), who noticed that their network traffic was sending "everything I was doing to Microsoft," including data from an unreleased game they were playing that was under NDA at the time.

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The user alleges that Microsoft's Gaming Copilot takes screenshots, extracts text via OCR, and then sends it to the company. Opening up Gaming Copilot's 'Privacy Settings', we can confirm that 'Model training on text' is enabled by default, with an additional 'Personalization and memory' option also enabled by default, which basically says anything you do with Bing, MSN, Gaming Copilot, and 'inferred interests' will be used by Microsoft for training and to create a custom Gaming Copilot experience for you.

Calling the option 'Model training on text' is a little misleading if Microsoft is actively screenshotting your PC gaming and scraping every piece of on-screen text for training its AI model. Without context, this could be interpreted as the text you enter into the Gaming Copilot prompt, which is a lot less concerning. Microsoft hasn't provided a detailed explanation of what 'Model training on text' does exactly, so hopefully, we get a proper explanation of how this side of Gaming Copilot works.

The privacy settings also have an option for 'Model training on voice,' but thankfully, this isn't enabled by default. Basically, if the idea of Microsoft potentially capturing your PC gaming habits and using that data to train its AI models sounds like something you don't want, be sure to head to Gaming Copilot's settings and turn these "features" off.