The idea that Microsoft is using Word, Excel or other documents to train their Copilot AI system won’t die. Let’s debunk one too often repeated myth about Office “Connected Experiences” which is not proof of a Microsoft conspiracy to steal customers work.
We’ve gone into detail about what isn’t or might be used to train AI at Is Microsoft using your data to train Copilot AI – the facts
In short: Microsoft 365 paying customers (Family, Personal and Business) data is NOT used to feed their AI system and there are other groups excluded, according to Microsoft. But there are grey areas and points that Microsoft could clarify to reassure customers.
Turning off AI training for Copilot generally is possible but Microsoft’s instructions are incomplete. We’ve done the job for them at How to turn off Copilot model training.
Connected Experiences link
Some social media ‘experts’ (using the term very loosely) are pointing to a Microsoft page that lists the Office ‘Connected Experiences’ as ‘proof’ (another loose term) that Microsoft is using data to feed Copilot. Others say people should do their own research, pointing to the same irrelevant page.
Only a few problems:
- The Connected Experiences page has NOTHING to do with Copilot.
- The only mention of Copilot is at the bottom with a link to another page and that page doesn’t refer to AI training at all!
- The web page lists about 35 Office features of which analyse some of your content on Microsoft’s servers and return a result.
- For example, Dictation, Read Aloud or Excel Data types.
- It’s not new or ‘slyly added’, the list of Connected Experiences has been around since at least 2019. That’s long before Copilot existed in any form.
Copilot should get a clearer mention on the “Connected Experiences” page, if only for the sake of clarity. Mostly Microsoft is treating Copilot AI as separate from the other server based features of Office.
