Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has further explained why the decision was made to scrap the Copilot AI companion on consoles.
Microsoft had been working on incorporating its Copilot AI assistant into games for some time – two years ago it gave a demonstration of how it planned to make Copilot speak to players while they’re playing games.
Last year it then specifically announced it was bringing Copilot for Gaming to Xbox consoles, describing it as an “AI-driven sidekick” which was “designed to be your personalised gaming companion”.
Following Sharma’s arrival, however, the plans were scrapped, with the new Xbox CEO saying: “You’ll see us begin to retire features that don’t align with where we’re headed. We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console.”
In an interview with Bloomberg Tech, Sharma has now been asked how this decision went down with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who has stated in the past that Microsoft wants to incorporate Copilot into everything.
Sharma replied that while Xbox is still looking into how to incorporate AI into game development, not every form of AI is useful or desirable for players. As such, while AI could be used for upscaling graphics (such as Nvidia‘s DLSS technology or AMD’s FSR tech), the benefits of using it as an AI assistant weren’t as clear to players.
“Look, one of the first commitments I made was future of play,” Sharma explained, “and I said ‘look, we’re going to be really thoughtful about how we ship AI’.
“My job is to think about where we invest, what we prioritize, and how we operate, and our console players aren’t excited about that experience in their console.
“Now, do I believe in AI? Absolutely. I think neural rendering is a great opportunity for us to invest in that. It helps upscale. It’s helping with the footprint on your device so you can get better graphics. There’s a lot of things that AI can be really great at.
“[But] I think that we have to make sure it’s solving a problem if we put it out there for gaming. And so I made that call.”
When asked if Satya Nadella was okay with this decision, Sharma replied: “It was an Xbox decision. He’s he’s given me latitude to make the best decisions for our players.”
Sharma became Xbox CEO in February, replacing the outgoing Phil Spencer. Before that, she was president of Microsoft’s CoreAI, causing some to worry that she would be bringing an AI-focused mindset to Xbox and further driving initiatives like Copilot.
In a mission statement shared with Xbox employees worldwide in April, however, Sharma said the Xbox team was going to “re-evaluate our approach to exclusivity, windowing, and AI, and share more as we learn and decide”.
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