Recently, Microsoft added Copilot to the Game Bar, allowing the AI assistant to hop in and help with your gaming queries. It seemed like a fun way to call up a guide and have it help you navigate a tricky part of a game or ask questions about stuff; however, a report came in claiming that the Copilot assistant on the Game Bar would harvest gameplay data to train itself on.

Well, as easy as that may be to believe, Microsoft has made an official statement that, no, it's not actually scanning your gameplay without your permission. As such, until we find some proof to the contrary, we'll believe Microsoft for now.

Microsoft denies claims that it's using gameplay data to train Copilot

The story begins on the ResetEra forums, where a user spotted something they thought was a little fishy:

This installed automatically on my PC, and watching the network traffic I realised it was automatically sending everything I was doing to Microsoft (including an NDA'd game I'm playing).

I checked the settings, and by default it's set to train on text seen on the screen - it screenshots everything, and OCRs text from in game and sends it to MS. MS then uses what you're doing to train their AI models.

Sounds pretty scary, right? Well, if Microsoft is to be believed, there's nothing to fear. In a statement to Tom's Hardware, Microsoft states that it doesn't harvest gameplay data in the background. Even the photos you send aren't being used for training purposes, says the company:

When you’re actively using Gaming Copilot in Game Bar, it can use screenshots of your gameplay to get a better understanding of what’s happening in your game and provide you with more helpful responses. These screenshots are not used to train AI models, and Gaming Copilot is an optional feature that only has access to gameplay when you’re playing a game and actively using it.

Separately, Gaming Copilot may use its text or voice conversations with players to help train and improve AI. Players can adjust Gaming Copilot’s privacy settings by visiting ‘Settings’ in [the] Game Bar, followed by ‘Privacy Settings.'

So, who do you believe: the initial report, or Microsoft? Personally, I'm going to trust Microsoft on this one. Until people find undeniable proof that Microsoft is actually training Copilot on people's gameplays, I'll stick with the official statement. However, I do hope for Microsoft's sake that it is telling the truth, because if people discovered that it lied, it would be a huge hit to its reputation and trustworthiness with future AI tools.