Microsoft AI Chief Defends Technology Amid Growing User Backlash Over Agentic Windows

Microsoft Exec Asks: Why Aren't More People Impressed With AI?

A Microsoft executive is questioning why more people aren't impressed with AI, a week after the company touted the evolution of Windows into an "agentic OS," which immediately triggered backlash. "Jeez there so many cynics! It cracks me up when I hear people call AI underwhelming," tweeted Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO for Microsoft's AI group. Suleyman added that he grew up playing the old-school 2D Snake game on a Nokia phone. "The fact that people are unimpressed that we can have a fluent conversation with a super smart AI that can generate any image/video is mindblowing to me," he wrote. Microsoft has been promoting new conversational AI chatbot experiences in Windows 11 that can be quite helpful. Last week, Windows boss Pavan Davuluri tried to talk up the AI features, tweeting, "Windows is evolving into an agentic OS, connecting devices, cloud, and AI to unlock intelligent productivity and secure work anywhere." But instead of arousing genuine interest, Davuluri's tweet set off some harsh feedback from at least some users put off by AI. "Stop this non-sense. No one wants this," wrote one programmer. "You live in a Twitter bubble where AI will create tons of wealth and you will perish unless you adopt it now. But your users are not in this bubble. They don't care about any of this shit." After turning off the public replies to his original tweet, Davuluri later responded to the criticism, posting: "I've read through the comments and see focus on things like reliability, performance, ease of use and more." The same tweet also dropped any mention of AI, instead emphasizing Microsoft's commitment to improve the Windows experience and other pain points, he said. Still, Suleyman's tweet seems to signal frustration from Microsoft when the company has made AI a centerpiece to its software strategy. Days earlier, he also dismissed the idea that the AI industry is facing a bubble, adding: "AI is the smartest, most capable technology ever invented. And it keeps improving even faster than we thought possible." Suleyman's tweet has since received some of its own backlash when it's clear that generative AI faces problems, including "hallucinating" the wrong information and sparking legal battles about copyright infringement, all the while potentially taking jobs away from humans. However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk seems to agree with Suleyman's take. "Good point," Musk wrote in response. Of course he's also a billionaire at the helm of his own startup, xAI, which is taking on OpenAI's ChatGPT and even Microsoft itself.

Microsoft exec finds AI cynicism 'mindblowing'

The tech is impressive. Shoehorning it into absolutely everything is not Opinion In a tweet lamenting all the "cynics" unmoved by AI, Microsoft AI boss Mustafa Suleyman demonstrated that Redmond's Reality Distortion Field is running at full power. Suleyman took a break from the Copilot company's San Francisco Ignite shindig to exclaim "Jeez there so many cynics!" and calling it "mindblowing" that people are unimpressed with AI. Suleyman's tweet came after Microsoft posted: "Copilot finishing your code before you finish your coffee." Both statements demonstrated how horrendously disconnected the Copilot company is from its users. AI is undoubtedly impressive technology. Setting aside Elon Musk's rather sad application, the advances in artificial intelligence have been jaw-dropping. Pattern identification, for example, has been a boon to science. However, being impressed by AI should not be confused with a desire to shoehorn it into every product and service. Microsoft's Ignite event is a perfect illustration of this. Whether a customer likes it or not, Copilot and AI agents are coming, ready to do their bidding, or, as is depressingly more likely, primed to misunderstand their instructions and do something else entirely. Microsoft's Copilot code comment was more of the same. A glance at the responses indicated that developers were less than impressed. It's possible Microsoft meant "finishing your code" in the same way autocomplete might, but judging by comments from CEO Satya Nadella, who said that 30 percent of Microsoft's code was now written by AI, it has loftier ambitions. Perhaps it is best to look away from the precipitous decline in the quality of the company's output. Suleyman said: "I grew up playing Snake on a Nokia phone!" Snake turned up in 1998. Imagine if, just a decade or so earlier, Suleyman had struck up a conversation with the text adventure game engines employed by Infocom and Magnetic Scrolls. Mindblowing, indeed. The emissions from Suleyman and Windows boss Pavan Davuluri show a startling disconnect from reality within Microsoft. Customers are not clamoring for more AI in the company's products, and calling people left cold by Copilot and its ilk "cynics" indicates an arrogance and unwillingness to listen to feedback that doesn't align with a particular worldview. AI can be very impressive. The way Microsoft is forcing the technology onto customers is not. ®

Microsoft exec finds AI cynicism 'mindblowing' - General Chat

Opinion: In a tweet lamenting all the "cynics" unmoved by AI, Microsoft AI boss Mustafa Suleyman demonstrated that Redmond's Reality Distortion Field is running at full power. Suleyman took a break from the Copilot company's San Francisco Ignite shindig to exclaim "Jeez there so many cynics!" and calling it "mindblowing" that people are unimpressed with AI. Suleyman's tweet came after Microsoft posted: "Copilot finishing your code before you finish your coffee." Microsoft's Copilot code comment was more of the same. A glance at the responses indicated that developers were less than impressed. It's possible Microsoft meant "finishing your code" in the same way autocomplete might, but judging by comments from CEO Satya Nadella, who said that 30 percent of Microsoft's code was now written by AI, it has loftier ambitions. Perhaps it is best to look away from the precipitous decline in the quality of the company's output https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/21/microsoft_ai_boss_comment/ 30% of Microsoft's code is written by AI? That must explain all of those quality updates.

Microsoft doesn't understand the dislike for Windows' new direction, and people are keen to explain

* Microsoft is making Windows agentic, but users strongly oppose the move, and Microsoft seems puzzled. * Users prefer targeted AI in apps, not AI injected everywhere (taskbar, filesystem, browser). * If Microsoft ignores critics and forces Copilot everywhere, it risks alienating users. Well, it turns out that Microsoft doesn't know why people dislike Windows' new direction. If you're just tuning in, the company announced that it's moving to make Windows an agentic operating system, which is when AI does most of the decision-making and heavy lifting. The company thought that people would love Copilot handling their PC for them, but the reality was a little jarring. So, now Microsoft has a lot of backlash on its hands. People are flocking to social media to air their disapproval of the agentic approach to Windows. The problem is, it seems Microsoft doesn't get why Copilot is getting all the hate. Well, fortunately for it, people are very much willing to sit down and give the company a piece of their mind. Microsoft claims it "cares deeply about developers" after the huge negative feedback it got from its agentic OS direction People are not happy. Posts 2 By Simon Batt 5 days ago Microsoft's AI CEO is confused about the hate over Windows becoming agentic Over on X, Microsoft's AI CEO, Mustafa Suleyman, made a post where they discussed their confusion. They specifically call out people calling AI "underwhelming," comparing their past, where they "played Snake on a Nokia phone," to having a "fluent conversation with a super smart AI." Some people took the opportunity to tell Mustafa exactly why they're not excited about the new AI wave. One X user, @vxunderground, explains that they do think AI is impressive, but that Microsoft is "injecting a solution into a "problem" that doesn't exist." They believe that "We do NOT want AI in applications, the taskbar, our filesystem, our browser, etc," and that Microsoft should be picking and choosing where to implement AI for maximum effect instead of spreading it everywhere. Some people, on the other handed decided not to mince words: It seems Microsoft has a problem where its AI-focused work ethic clashes with what people outside its Redmond offices actually want. When a business believes that "AI is no longer optional," it's understandable that the person leading the charge doesn't understand why everyone else doesn't get excited over using Copilot in every facet of their life. Unfortunately, if Microsoft continues to wave away naysayers and forge ahead with its agentic plan, it may end up making more enemies than friends.

Microsoft exec lashes out at AI skeptics, calls criticism "mind-blowing"

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. A hot potato: Many people don't share the same slavish enthusiasm for AI as the executives praising the technology. Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft's AI group, finds this stance "mindblowing." His post further illustrates how most execs, especially those from companies that have poured billions into the tech, believe the average person who isn't enamored by AI is simply ungrateful. Suleyman expressed his barely concealed contempt for non-AI-lovers in a post on X. "Jeez there so many cynics! It cracks me up when I hear people call AI underwhelming." Suleyman then noted that he grew up playing Snake on a Nokia phone - like many of us - so the fact that people were unimpressed by having a conversation with a super smart AI that can generate any image or video is mindblowing to him. Microsoft's overall AI investment will soon exceed $90 billion, so Suleyman obviously wants people to be excited about a technology his company has poured a fortune into. But the main issue of contention is that he seems to think people aren't impressed by AI, but that usually isn't true. For many, the problem with AI isn't that it's unimpressive - it is - it's the long list of bad things that come with it. The main problem is that people are sick of these systems being shoehorned into literally every aspect of our lives, regardless of whether they're a good fit. Then there are the other aspects: the planet-destroying consumption of resources, higher electricity bills, more data centers taking up land, the mass extinction of job categories, the economic risks associated with the possibility of an AI-driven market bubble, the potential of an AGI that turns on humanity, and so on. While Suleyman's post doesn't mention it explicitly, the message was likely prompted by the controversy surrounding Microsoft's vision of Windows evolving into an agentic operating system. Users were about as outraged by Windows President Pavan Davuluri's post on the agentic OS as you'd expect, noting that it was something nobody other than Microsoft wanted. But that backlash didn't deter the Redmond firm, which clarified a few days later that the agentic features are arriving sooner than expected. The company confirmed that these experimental changes will appear in a private developer preview build for unpaid beta testers enrolled in the Windows Insider program.

Microsoft's AI CEO fights fire with fire, says AI cynics complaining about Windows 11's new direction are 'mind-blowing to me'

Microsoft has been roundly flamed for its doubling-down on AI following recent revelations of where Windows 11 is headed, and the answer to that is to fight fire with fire, at least for the CEO of AI at the company. Windows Central flagged that Mustafa Suleyman took to X and declared that he's not impressed with the AI haters. Concerning the recent negative feedback to the planned AI advances for Windows 11, including AI agents in the OS, Suleyman complained: "Jeez there so many cynics! It cracks me up when I hear people call AI underwhelming. I grew up playing Snake on a Nokia phone! The fact that people are unimpressed that we can have a fluent conversation with a super smart AI that can generate any image/video is mind-blowing to me." And okay, I get that sentiment in some ways. Yes, the advance of AI, or Large Language Model (LLMs), since ChatGPT stormed onto the scene has been quite something to see. It's undeniable that the speed of the developments with AI on the desktop and phones has been dizzying, and there's some pretty incredible stuff going on. Even everyday people of the very non-techy variety, or certainly my friends and family, are quickly catching on that ChatGPT (or Gemini, or Copilot, and so on) can be a far more powerful tool than Google for answering questions and meeting their needs. (Although Google has AI injected into its search results at the top now, of course, precisely because of this). Or indeed for knocking up a pretty spectacular image from scratch, as Suleyman touches on. Those are all the good things, though. You can just talk about the positive sunny stuff and not the broiling gloom of clouds that consists of all the worries and doubt around AI. And so, onwards, into the storm... There are general fears about AI, of course - that we're moving fast and breaking things, as the oft-cited worry goes. And that we aren't doing enough about ensuring safety and guardrails, while being too focused on pushing forward with what AI can do. (And when I say 'we' I really mean those of us making a ton of money out of AI, related applications, and related hardware, of course). Those kinds of broader concerns apply to AI in Windows 11, of course, but there are more specific barbs being aimed at Microsoft's fresh push to get more AI into its desktop operating system. I've talked quite a bit about this in recent times, so I won't go over it fully again, but suffice it to say this is mainly about Microsoft's focus on AI being "unimpressive" (harsher words have been used) in terms of pushing new features in Windows 11 when there's a fair bit about the OS that still leaves a lot to be desired. For example, missing basic functionality (moving the taskbar away from the bottom of the screen), and the all-too-regular drip-feed of bugs and weird problems with Windows 11. As I, and many others, have said, how can we have confidence in Microsoft to do AI right - and get agents performing perhaps complex tasks, while maintaining our privacy and security - when even basic elements of the Windows 11 interface are going wonky on a regular basis (slow search, File Explorer, right-click menu weirdness, and so on). This is what's "underwhelming" about Microsoft's software development and QA processes, which will also apply to these AI agents with their tendrils spanning out across Windows 11 and your files (where you've given permission for the agent to access, of course - I should make that very clear, but the AI is still accessing some content). What's also a big problem is that the demos of Copilot, especially the recent marketing efforts, have been underwhelming. The practical use of AI doesn't match the theory, as we saw in a recent clip of Copilot trying to help a user change the text size in Windows 11, where it stumbles on a number of points, and gets a couple of things outright wrong. It's confusing how Microsoft's marketing department let this clip go live, frankly, and tellingly, the video has now been removed. While those working on AI in Windows 11 might be understandably frustrated by the negative reaction out there, they need to take this criticism on board, and not lash out like this - which, to be fair, another Microsoft exec has done. Given misfiring demos, and the general underwhelming nature of Copilot in the main so far within Windows 11 - with much of the early AI abilities being focused on mainly creative applications, which aren't everyone's bag by any means - is it any wonder that many people aren't all that enthusiastic? Or that some are downright hostile when they're fed up of bugs, bits of Windows 11 going wonky in truly odd ways, and the incessant promotion of Microsoft's other services in the OS? Or when they think of the Recall fracas - don't forget that gem of woeful underthinking and poor planning for an AI feature which is deeply privacy-sensitive. For some people, all this has created a backdrop of a lack of trust regarding whether Microsoft can get AI right, and that the 'snake' of these agents might somehow escape the confines of its security container due to an exploit and end up chomping through all their files.

Microsoft's head of AI doesn't understand why people don't like AI, and I don't understand why he doesn't understand because it's pretty obvious

Is it really "mindblowing" that people are skeptical of software that consistently doesn't do the things we're told it can do? Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman says it's "mindblowing" that people aren't more impressed with generative AI tools. "Jeez there so many cynics!" wrote Suleyman on X this week. "It cracks me up when I hear people call AI underwhelming. I grew up playing Snake on a Nokia phone! The fact that people are unimpressed that we can have a fluent conversation with a super smart AI that can generate any image/video is mindblowing to me." The comment comes as the public reacts to Microsoft pushing its new "agentic" services, referring to AI agents that can perform tasks beyond chatting and generating images. Windows head Pavan Davuluri said earlier this month that Microsoft's OS is "evolving into an agentic OS," and I can't say I'm excited about the prospect. Suleyman's inability to comprehend that lack of enthusiasm can easily be resolved with a classic technique from ancient philosophy, or maybe it was an ad for taco shells, in which one accepts two different things at the same time. In this case, I think that generative AI models are very novel and that it's absolutely appropriate to be curious about the ways they mimic human creativity and reason, and without contradicting myself at all, I also think that they've been recklessly jammed into commercial software despite not actually being capable of the things tech companies claim they are. In Suleyman's brief tweet alone there are two obvious falsehoods: AI chatbots are not "smart" and they cannot "generate any image/video." They can do lots of interesting and peculiar things, but often fail at the simple tasks Microsoft shows them doing in its ads. For instance, The Verge recently attempted to recreate a moment in one of Microsoft's commercials in which Copilot correctly identified the location of a cave from a photo. In The Verge's test, the Windows chatbot repeatedly told them the location of the image in the Windows file system rather than its location on the planet (it'd be a good gag if chatbots could have a sense of humor), and when it did provide a geographical answer, it was wrong. The reporter also found that they could get Copilot to claim that the cave is in New Jersey simply by adding "new-jersey" to the file name. That's just one of countless examples of AI failing to do anything but waste our time. I Googled "Black Ops 7" last week, and Google's AI search results told me it was a made-up game that doesn't exist. Helpful! And I haven't even mentioned the scraping of copyrighted material that makes these bots possible in the first place, the ugly AI-generated art showing up in videogames and other media, the dangers LLMs pose to vulnerable people, the techno-soothsayers claiming that these busted chatbots can do all of our jobs, and the enormous resource investment going toward AI data centers -- all to rapidly commercialize poorly understood technology that doesn't actually do the things we're told it does. Is it really so hard for the tech industry to understand why not everyone is bowing before their new gods? AI and machine learning may in fact transform the world, but there's no reason to assume that the transformation will be a good thing unless we actually try to make it a good thing. So far, tech companies have given no indication that they care about anything besides the pursuit of profit. I don't think that we're the cynical ones here.

Microsoft says Copilot will 'finish your code before you finish your coffee' provoking another barrage of anti-AI and Windows 11 sentiment

Microsoft is intent on pushing the strengths of AI - as Windows 11 is firmly headed for a future of Copilot and various AI agents - and a fresh post on X is causing yet more controversy. In case you missed it, there's been quite a negative reaction from many quarters around recent revelations of the new AI features Microsoft is bringing to Windows 11 (including agentic AI, one of the latest buzzwords). Ignoring that rage in rather unwise fashion, as Windows Latest reports, the official Microsoft account on X posted a simple flex as follows: "Copilot finishing your code before you finish your coffee." Intel was on board with the idea immediately, with Team Blue's business account on X replying to say: "Now THAT'S productivity!" Unfortunately for Microsoft, almost everyone else posting a reply was not so happy. Indeed, some of the myriad ripostes to Microsoft's boast are so cold, if words could be used as exotic cooling for a record-breaking overclock attempt, we'd have a 10GHz CPU in town (well, not quite, but you get the point). The first comeback posted, in fact, is a touch of minor genius courtesy of a graphic designer: "I can finish my coffee before right click > task manager opens." And then cue the many people who can't resist asking if this is why Windows 11 is being broken after every update, or whether Copilot is finishing Windows 11 code and how that would explain a lot. There are a lot of comments about whether Copilot finishing code is anything to do with the state of Windows 11 and bugs, in fact, but this isn't a new thing. In pretty much every post I've seen on the likes of Reddit or X that's about a Windows update that has a bug, somebody has at some point chimed in to say that it's probably AI which is to blame. This all goes back to earlier this year when CEO Satya Nadella informed us that up to 30% of Microsoft's coding was carried out by AI. So, at a time when there's an active backlash still reverberating across online forums everywhere, caused by how Microsoft is driving to get more AI into Windows 11, you can see how it looks pretty tone deaf for the company's social media staffers to be posting something like this. This is the problem with what's happened here, regardless of Copilot's actual coding competency, or lack of it, which is the other major source of the pot-shots taken in replies to Microsoft's post. Regarding the latter, no doubt Copilot, or AI more broadly, can be a useful tool when coding. Programmers do use it for more grunt-work type of tasks, although among coders, there are arguments and doubts over even using AI for that (and how it promotes bad practice in general). The broader worry is that using AI to help with coding is going to make people lazy over time, and erode fundamental skills - ultimately leading to a programming world where AI takes over more, and humans increasingly struggle to understand the code and be able to effectively troubleshoot it when problems arise. All of which sound like valid concerns, but for now, Microsoft simply needs to dampen down the outright enthusiasm for AI features and read the room. Because those recent developments with Windows 11 are still leaving some people feeling stung about where all this is going - and why Microsoft isn't addressing what they see as much more pressing issues in Windows 11, namely fixing existing problems and cracking down on bugs.