Despite recalling Recall, Microsoft still running ads for problematic feature on Copilot+ PCs

Microsoft’s big bet on AI has been ambitious. The Redmond tech giant has recorded a strong financial performance in the last quarter thanks to AI and cloud, and now, with the Copilot+ PCs being the industry’s current standard, it seems like Microsoft is on for a long, good year.

And now, Microsoft still continues to push the “Recall” feature as one of the highest selling points of Copilot+ PCs. Folks over at Tom’s Hardware spotted an ad on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “Meet your photographic memory.”

The ad was posted on June 25, 2024, but it’s still running until now even after the feature attracted strong-worded backlashes. Recent replies also suggest that the X post still continues appearing on other users.  

Once clicked, it takes you to a webpage where you can shop for Copilot+ PCs that are in the market at the moment, like Surface Laptop 7, Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge, ASUS Vivobook S 15, Dell XPS 13, and more.

Launched a little while ago, Copilot+ PCs are the “fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs in the market” with NPUs being its most prominent force that offers AI beyond traditional CPU-GPU setups.

One of the “flagship” features that these Copilot+ PCs have is “Recall,” and if you’re not in touch with it, it lets you search for everything on your PCs. More than simply looking for documents, you can also look for previous actions that you’ve done.

But, not too long after the launch, Recall got recalled. Users and security analysts have found security loopholes that could potentially be exploited by bad actors, in a similar fashion with the ChatGPT app on desktop for Mac. The backlash was so bad that Microsoft had to pull it out, offered an “out” by default, and a lot of “Recall clones” also appeared.

But that does not mean that Microsoft has stopped working on this feature. New functionalities like Screenray and Topics have been worked on, and from the look of it, Microsoft may not stop advertising it any time soon.

Microsoft has a not-so-good reputation when it comes to ads. Not too long ago, we reported that Microsoft has started slapping ads in Copilot chat results, not to mention the “monotonous” ad that appeared months ago that looks so … generic.