- Microsoft has used Copilot to generate images for “how to” articles
- Some of these images came out very badly and show parts of the Windows 11 interface with obvious errors.
- This is, to say the least, embarrassing and possibly confusing for the less tech-savvy.
Microsoft is using AI to generate screenshots to accompany its “how-to” articles, and since some of these screenshots get things horribly wrong, this is effectively a lesson in how not to use AI.
These how-to guides are located in the Windows Learning Center and are helpful tutorials, although, as Windows Latest points out, many of the articles have Copilot-generated images.
We know this because the captions accompanying those images say that the image is “AI art created through Copilot,” so this is really Microsoft’s way of advertising how good its AI is at generating images. Or try to do that, anyway.
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The problem is that the AI has made mistakes on some occasions. As Windows Latest points out, there’s a big misstep with the article regarding using widgets in Windows 11, where a screenshot provided shows a completely different looking widget panel.
While an experienced user will realize that this is just an illustrative example, less knowledgeable people may not know, perhaps to the point where they start to wonder why their widget panel looks completely different, or even how they get it to change to this seemingly alternative format.
That’s misleading, then, but there are worse offenders. TweakTown highlighted more examples, including one where the AI hallucinated and produced two Start menu icons on the taskbar.
This is present in the Snipping tool tutorial, or was, as Microsoft has now removed the image (unsurprisingly). Technically, the duplicate Home buttons weren’t actually the same, and one of them isn’t a Home button at all (if you zoom in), but at first glance they appear to be. And one is on the left, while the second (and all the other icons) are centered on the taskbar, which doesn’t make any sense. (You can have taskbar icons aligned left or center, but not both.)
Clearly, the AI has gone wrong with a series of screenshots, and TweakTown cites more examples, including someone playing a game on a laptop using a controller, apparently engaged in that quest, but looking across the room. Oops.
Analysis: residual ammunition
Microsoft has no shortage of money in its coffers to pay for photo shoots to achieve these types of images, of course, so it’s not a good idea. That said, it seems like the company is using these images to advertise Copilot’s imaging skills, but if so, poor quality examples where things just go wrong hardly make a good impression here. As noted at the beginning, if anything, this is a warning, showing how the use of AI can go off the rails.
Crucially, if Microsoft is going to use AI in this way, one would imagine there would be a human editor examining the quality of the images and making sure they fit the article without any obvious issues. So that hasn’t happened, or the supervisor of these AI creations has done a poor job of quality control.
The bottom line is that it seems like Microsoft is rushing and taking shortcuts with AI here, and that gives ammunition directly to the ‘Microslop’ crowd. These are errant, poorly quality-controlled AI images that have been used without enough thought. While not all of the images are problematic, there are enough that seem unfortunate, to say the least.
Microsoft needs to exercise more discipline in the way it uses AI, and you’d think the company would be well aware of this in light of the ‘Microslop’ moniker that came into vogue in early 2026. Sadly not, it seems, and that leads to the kind of comment made by this Redditor: “It’s like all their creativity has been ruined by AI…”
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