How to disable copilot on microsoft office (excel, word, ppt) on Macbook

MacOS Sonoma: Unchecking the "Connected Experiences" options (top image below) turns off the AI features BUT (big ones...):

• It does (assuming they're not lying about privacy settings) exclude AI from interacting (read/write) with the documents (bottom image)
• It does not remove the annoying symbol at the start of every new paragraph
• It does not remove the copilot button from the toolbar
• It does remove a bunch of useful features - one I found was that I could no longer export a file to a pdf (I could still print to pdf, but it takes more steps.

This is such a terrible user experience - mentioned elsewhere, but this is some "Clippy" level ****. But thanks to late stage capitalism and monopoly power, I'm trapped needing Microsoft's products, as all my clients use it. I'll be hunting today for an open source alternative for me to work in. I'll still need Office (so they still get the money), but hopefully I can work most of the time without it and only open when needed.

Thanks for trying. I wasted a day yesterday trying to get rid of Copilot. It is total BS.

Microsoft staff can only suggest suggest unsubscribing and reverting to an older version of the software! Imagine what could go wrong! Then, future updates will be necessary for functionality and will likely bring Copilot back (unless MS wakes up to the problem this is for many people). Copilot should be opt-in, not opt out (and opting-out means a whole lot of work with no guarantees of future functionality).

I do not pay Microsoft for an Office sub to have them 'help' me by gleaning my data, 'learning from me', and appearing (as an annoying icon) on each line of my intellectual property/work. There are also enormous legal ramifications for students and academic writers who have no desire to 'cheat' by allowing AI to write or organize their work.

And for those of us currently writing creative texts/fiction, that Copilot icon in the margin of each line is unbelievably awful. And I certainly do not want Microsoft contributing to or mining my work in any way at all.

Microsoft must remove Copilot from user accounts which did not opt in.

I wish to add my voice to the chorus of disapprobation about Copilot. What were they thinking?

For students, it would be considered plagiarism and the utilization of external assistance. For creative professionals, it is distracting, intrusive and completely pointless.

AI has a place, there is no doubt about that. And, those who wish to use Copilot in their work, fine, do so, for whatever reason.

However, it needs to be an opt-in function.

It is, without a doubt, the most boneheaded addition that if the software geeks and boffins had bothered to think, rather than just write code, would have realized the response from users that is now rearing its head.

Hopefully, in a new update, there will be an option to opt out of Copilot. I’ve been using MS Word since 1989 when Word For Windows 2.0 was released. I know, I’m old. It’s an essential part of my working and leisure life as an educator and writer.

I don’t want nor do I need Copilot.

Charley

Thanks Tasha for calling out some of the types of users who are significantly affected by the presence of Copilot in Word. Risks include legal ramifications, regulatory and policy violations, ethical concerns, repetitional damage, creativity inhibitors, etc. I would like to add other user groups similarly affected: creative writers and professional writers of all kinds. Government employees are bound in many places by policies to mitigate the risks of using AI in their writing because it can have serious implications in delivering government services.

Microsoft, are you listening?

Even if we disable Copilot functionally by turning off the Connected Experiences under Privacy, it still shows up in the ribbon at top right. More importantly for writers, the icon still shows up in the left margin every time we press the enter key to start a new paragraph. This is so distracting to writers who are developing their train of thought as they type. I don't know what the point is of having that icon appear every time, even though we've turned off Copilot functionally. This is a common concern, judging by the replies by in this thread.

Microsoft, I think you are doing yourself serious reputational damage with this default opt-in, and with the persistent icon starting each paragraph.

Please tell me how you remove the icon from the ribbon?