How do I disable Copilot and all Other AI functionality in Windows 11 PRO

I think the problem is with businesses that are under SOX or GLBA compliance regulations. CoPilot has the potential to "see" financial information and could send it to the cloud. This would violate those policies. Think tax preparers and accountants..

As an accountant (in Australia), this functionality does worry me, to the extent it may violate Australia’s Privacy Legislation. The “Recall” facility on the new Microsoft computers is terrifying. Will not touch one, ever.

I followed the link posted by @user_01_ and it seemed to work OK, at least for the COPILOT side of things, not sure about the EDGE browser, but I rarely use it. This is on s Windows 11 Pro system with GPEDIT, so possibly the HOME edition might have to use the Registry edit trick.

I agree with you @Nunya Bizness.

Copilot supports the RECALL functionality:

Microsoft states that the screenshots and database(s) are encrypted, but I think that any powerful AI APP or utility, especially one that runs in the background, lacks openness and transparency.

Because most are proprietary in nature, there is (AFAIK) going to be a great lack of viable tools to verify vendors claims for ANY such AI models.

Even the OpenAI group is NOT open about how it trains it's AI models according to Mozilla, and is even fighting a major court case brought by the New York Times – asking them to explain its use of personal data and copyrighted content in its AI models.

This shows that the big companies developing this technology are hiding behind the "proprietary" wall, to avoid any oversight and responsibility.

It only takes a minor coding error to open up a hackers paradise, and therefore I put this in the same basket as IoT firmware, as regards security and privacy.

Data Breaches make big news (Optus, AT&T, Medibank, Ticketmaster to name a few), but this does NOT help those affected.

I believe that we should ALL be aware of the inherent risks that this sort of AI poses, and do our utmost to reduce our attack surface, whether that is in a Home network, or a business setting.

So, turn off what you do not need, or what might pose a security or privacy risk. As I see it, COPILOT is more useful to the Microsoft AI LLM systems than it is to users.

See this for proof of an issue waiting to happen:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/3/24170305/microsoft-windows-recall-ai-screenshots-security-privacy-issues

Windows Recall has already been hacked and it's not even out of preview yet. And it only takes seconds.

"TotalRecall, Hagenah says, can automatically work out where the Recall database is on a laptop and then make a copy of the file, parsing all the data as it does so. While Microsoft's new Copilot+ PCs aren't out yet, it's possible to use Recall by emulating a version of the devices. "It does everything automatically," he says. The system can set a date range for extracting the data—for instance, pulling information from only one specific week or day. Pulling one day of screenshots from Recall, which stores its information in an SQLite database, took two seconds at most, Hagenah⁩ says."

https://www.wired.com/story/total-recall-windows-recall-ai/