Microsoft Is Putting Its Copilot AI Into Games Like Minecraft

AI is all the rage these days, and it seems that Microsoft is adding its take on the technology to some of its Xbox and PC games. At the company’s recent Surface and AI event, it showed off its new Copilot AI, which is Microsoft’s unique twist on what we’ve seen from big tech firms like OpenAI (ChatGPT) and Google (Gemini).

Over on X/Twitter, Microsoft posted a demo video of a player using Copilot to learn how to craft a sword in Minecraft. According to Windows Central, this AI will respond to natural language (like most LLMs) and will explain how to use the resources you have, and will even guide you to them. Microsoft emphasized that the data used for Copilot will remain on-device, and that it won’t be uploaded to the cloud or used to train language models further without the user’s consent.

As with all AI models, it sounds good in theory, but it remains to be seen if it actually works. So-called AI “hallucinations” (i.e. the model making up or reporting inaccurate info) have been a problem with LLMs from the very beginning, which could lead to some frustrating scenarios. But all-in-all, this is a potential game-changer for those who would prefer to avoid digging through game wikis and Google searches to find the answer to that tough puzzle.

At this event, Microsoft showed off what it calls “Copilot+ PCs,” which come loaded with proprietary AI technology. However, they will require better hardware to fully leverage that tech, including a neural processor and 16GB of RAM. Windows laptops with AI will start rolling out on June 18.