In a move sure not to ruffle any feathers, the CoPilot for gaming beta is hitting the Xbox app on iOS and Android today.
CoPilot for gaming is, seemingly to me, a voice-enabled assistant that will find you answers for basic gaming questions. How it finds these answers, one can only guess. If it is anything like other AI services, then chances are high that it’s pulling them from hard-working gaming guide websites, like IGN, and giving you those answers without the site gaining any money.
Say what you will about gaming coverage. The advent of these AI scrapers will only hasten its quick demise. I can’t report about a feature like this, one that feels forced by the AI-driven goals of Microsoft’s upper management. In a blog post on the Xbox News Wire, these were the suggested types of interactions you can have with the new function:
- Ask questions about a specific game or the game you’re currently playing, such as when you get stuck or need tips .
- “Hey Copilot, can you remind me what materials I need to craft a sword in Minecraft?”
- [While playing South by Midnight] “I’m stuck on Rougarou right now. Can you give me some tips on how to beat this boss?”
- “What’s my gamerscore and can you give me some tips to raise it?
- Ask for game recommendations. If you’re new to Xbox, tell Copilot about your favorite game or entertainment genres and let it recommend new games to play. If you’re a seasoned player, ask for recommendations on what game to play next based on your gaming history.
- “Hey Copilot, what should I play tonight?”
- “I love horror movies. Any suggestions for what game I should play?”
- “I’m looking for a new RPG. Can you recommend something that came out on Xbox recently?
- Ask about your play history or account, such as Xbox Achievements or subscriptions.
- “Hey Copilot, what’s the rarest achievement you can get in Avowed?”
- “What was the last achievement I got in Starfield?”
- “When does my Game Pass subscription renew?”
As far as who will gain access to CoPilot for Gaming the blog gives this list and link: “This early preview of Copilot for Gaming in the beta version of the Xbox app for mobile is available in English for players aged 18 and older in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, and other regions. You can view the full list of regions where early testing is available here. We plan to release Copilot for Gaming (Beta) in additional regions at a later date.“
What do you think about this latest attempt to make AI more useful for gaming? Do you share my concerns about the ethics behind it? We at XboxEra already suffer from Google and Bing scraping our pages and giving answers that do not require clicks.
If you want us to stick around, please consider joining our Patreon.
