If you were already skeptical about Microsoft's ongoing campaign to crush Windows 11 with useless AI features, you'll hate this video.
In a 30-second clip uploaded over the weekend, programmer Ryan Fleury shows how Windows 11's allegedly AI-powered search bar also works. that's exactly what it says to youo Does not work as advertised.
At the beginning of the video, the search bar on the settings page shows a glowing AI icon recommending a search for “Mouse pointer is too small.” This goes against the common wisdom of search functionality, which says you should search using keywords rather than entire sentences. The magic of AI will solve that, right?
But as it turns out, when Fleury searches for “mouse pointer too small,” exactly as expressed in the search suggestions, nothing comes up. He waits about 10 seconds but no luck. But then when I search for “test” I get 3 results.
“This is not a real company,” Fleury fumed.
Dozens of netizens also joined him and jeered at the misfire feature, using a harsh but fair new derogatory term, “microslop.''
Like it or not, Microsoft isn't going to back down from bringing AI capabilities to Windows 11. Support for the older operating system Windows 10 has ended. This is in hopes of getting you to upgrade and try out the successor AI chatbot-slash-virtual assistant with Copilot integration.
The AI transformation is meant to be so far-reaching that various executives are describing the tipping point in terms like turning Windows 11 into an “agent OS,” or better yet, an “AI canvas.” Changes include placing the Copilot icon in the center of the taskbar and integrating Copilot into Windows Explorer to generate a document summary on right-click. Other features in development include Copilot Vision, which lets AI analyze what you see on your desktop display, and Copilot Actions, which lets AI perform tasks on your behalf.
Many users are concerned that deeply woven AI integration poses security risks. This concern is also conveyed by Windows 11's past AI failures. Among them was an early version of the AI ”Recall” feature, which creates a history of computer activity by continuously taking screenshots of the computer, was found to have stored sensitive data such as Social Security numbers and saved the screenshots in unsecured folders.
Backlash against Microsoft's AI axis has been growing rapidly since the company announced it would end support for Windows 10, but anti-AI sentiment in general has also been on the rise, recently reaching a boiling point with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's call for Microsoft to stop using the word “slop,” a new slang term for low-quality text, images, and videos mass-produced by AI models. Unfortunately for Nadella, he unwittingly set off a classic case of the Streisand effect, and shortly after his “slop” comment, the word “microslop” suddenly went viral online.
“'90% of our code is written by AI!!!'” Fleury mocked, referring to the boasts of Nadella and other tech CEOs. “Don't worry, we'll understand.”
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