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

• CEO of AI Mustafa Suleyman posted on X after a recent backlash on AI
• The exec said there are "so many cynics" out there who believe AI is "underwhelming"
• He added that the "fact that people are unimpressed that we can have a fluent conversation with a super smart AI … is 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…

Analysis: Microsoft needs to build confidence and trust

(Image credit: Microsoft)

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.

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