Microsoft Is Bring Back Controversial AI Tool

The world of artificial intelligence (AI) has taken several turns and right now a shocking development emerged that seems to be terrifying consumers.

For many people, the AI revolution is reshaping entire industries and markets in a frightening way. Companies are creating the type of technology that science fiction writers have long predicted could overpower humanity.

Others are more worried about their jobs being rendered obsolete, as AI systems demonstrate clear abilities to perform human tasks with extreme precision. Companies have quickly moved to eliminate positions that center around tasks such as data entry and customer service.

One company that is helping usher in the next phase of AI is Microsoft. However, the tech leader recently released a controversial feature sparking strong concern among its user base, which seems extremely worried about the consequences.

Over the past few years, Microsoft has worked hard to remain competitive in the AI market as startups such as OpenAI and Anthropic have made significant advances. Its Copilot AI chatbot remains a popular choice among users, although it has not caught up with ChatGPT.

Recently, however, Microsoft has made multiple AI-related announcements that many consumers likely find frightening. Last week, it released a detailed report describing a future in which most teams of office workers are composed of AI agents managed by humans.

A few days ago, though, the company announced plans to bring back an AI tool that generated a lot of controversy the last time they tried to roll it out. Originally introduced in May 2024, Recall is a Windows 11 feature that can take a screenshot of everything a user does before indexing and storing it in a matter of seconds.

Concerns about security and privacy violations quickly rose, prompting the company to push back the launch, originally intended for June 2024. But a year later, Microsoft is pushing forward with its plans to bring Recall to its Copilot+ PCs.

In a recent statement, Microsoft attempted to frame Recall as a powerful new feature that can save users time by allowing them to search more efficiently. "You are always in control of what snapshots are saved and can pause saving snapshots at any time," it promises users. However, this isn’t necessarily going to appease people’s anxiety.

"Even if User A never opts in to Recall, they have no control over the setting on the machines of Users B through Z," Ars Technica reports. "That means anything User A sends them will be screenshotted, processed with optical character recognition and Copilot AI, and then stored in an indexed database on the other users’ devices."

The outlet adds that this could allow the AI tool to collect any sensitive material from the user in question, which could include passwords, medical data, and messages sent through encrypted services.