Remove Copilot from Word

Simply does not work. I rolled back to the Office version 17531.20120, opened Word and - presto - there was Copilot again.

Also: the steps you describe above ("“Switch to a subscription that suits you better") do not appear on my page as described.

This is BS. I should not have to do this, and I fear it will compromise my account. Future updates will be necessary for functionality and will likely bring Copilot back (unless MS wakes up to the problem it is for many people). 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 / my 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 who are currently writing creative texts / fiction, that line by line icon is unbelievably annoying as I certainly do not want Microsoft contributing to or sampling / mining my work in any way at all. Microsoft must remove Copilot from user accounts which did not opt in.

You work for Microsoft as do some others in these chats about Copilot, and not even you know how to remove it?! This is very very very bad service by Microsoft.

On my Macbook I went: Word->Privacy->Manage Connected Experiences, and disabled all (apparently losing other functionality in the process), but after a restart, Copilot's margin icon is still there on my pages!

This is incredibly annoying. Users should not have to spend days of precious time trying to figure how to get out of something we did not opt-into. I'm paying $$$ per year for a functional Word programme, and I need Copilot gone asap.

And yet after removing all connected experiences, the copilot still annoys with its icon next to the cursor. So your answer is incorrect and false.

It's almost as if Microsoft are removing any way of people pushing back against technology they don't want injected into their work flow... collecting data and information... not turning off...

We can choose to buy an electric car, but not own it, per se – only lease/subscribe options as the manufacturers still require access to 'update' the code for our driving pleasures. All the capability is there but the manufacturer have the control to turn on/off the go-fast toggle if you pay big dollars.

Thus, we subscribe to – but cannot dictate how – Microsoft controls our life or lets us drive our own workflow. And we are paying for this. We are paying Microsoft to access our IP, learn from us, and not give us the ability to turn functions off that we don't want or have adverse risks to our lives.

Why is there not a greater backlash globally against this?