I liked you better when you weren't cool

[sovay]

Does anyone know how to remove the floating Copilot button from a version of Microsoft Word on which I disabled all so-called connected experiences the day I bought the new license more than two years ago and which has nonetheless just sneakily updated itself so that I have an AI-inducing rainbow-colored heartworm constantly keeping pace in the down right corner of the document, blocking out text which I am trying to write? I have looked for suggestions online and most of them seem to require preference options not available in my Mac. But what I need in a Word document is words and nothing else and I cannot deal with a planet-killing visual fault in the middle of them, on top of which the fact that this obscenity can be intruded into my software makes me want to headline the news for the disappearance of the Roko's basilisk boys who put it there. If a program is on my computer, the only person who should be able to tinker with it is me. I am not even eloquent, I am so furious. Any actionable suggestions would be appreciated.

[ETA 2025-11-12 22:23] JESUS CHRIST AFTER AN EVENING ON THE PHONE WITH APPLE SUPPORT WHICH WAS FLABBERGASTED BY THE PROBLEM AND NO SUPPORT WHATSOEVER FROM MICROSOFT I FIXED THE PROBLEM MYSELF WITH A CLEAN INSTALL OF PRE-COPILOT MICROSOFT WORD BECAUSE I NEVER THREW AWAY THE ORIGINAL INSTALL PACKAGE FROM 2023 IT WAS STILL IN MY TRASH I SHOULD NOT HAVE HAD TO REINSTALL FROM MY LITERAL TRASH WELCOME TO 2025

Comments

[foxmoth]

I don't see it on my version of Word (which is sadly Office 365 for work reasons) but if I find out I will let you know. :]

...this kind of fuckery is why I'm now moving to writing in ancient-ass command-line text editors or maybe more modern Markdown editors if it does not have to be work-related or client-facing, but it sucks. :/

[selkie]

I don't know how they did something more diabolical than Clippy, really.
Is yours a subscription product? I'm on Word 2010 at work and on Binky, so I think any kind of Gen AI is just beyond it, and our Word 365 has just had its updates turned off for ever and ever.
UGH, how rotten and unuseful all of it is.

[princessofgeeks]

I have no useful suggestions but I totally feel your rage and frustration. Argh.

[f0rrest]

In the days when you were hopeless and poor ...

[aurumcalendula]

Ugh. It sounds like you might need to briefly enable connected experiences to get the setting to turn it off? https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255932892?sortBy=rank

https://www.reddit.com/r/Office365/comments/1i4xu9v/comment/mb35kq1/

[batdina]

like clippy, it can be turned off, but it cannot be removed. I think there's no institutional memory at Microsoft vis a vis the furor over clippy in the 90s so it never occurred to them that this creepy bugger would be a problem.

[thomasyan]

Searching around, I also was told "you need to first re-enable connected experiences, quit out of ALL Microsoft apps, restart Word, and then you should be able to disable Copilot and connected experiences."

[kaffy_r]

Congratulations on having figured out how to solve the problem. I don't tend to use Microsoft Word if at all possible, since I'm a Google and WordPerfect fan, but I've had situations that have been somewhat similar. There's both a joy in figuring it out, and a headachy frustration in having to be the figurer. Go, you!

[gwynnega]

I am glad you fixed the problem, but ARGH!!!

[thistleingrey]

I use standalone Word, but it's on Windows, where I've been able to disable Copilot, so far.

Think I found an Apple Support discussion that sounds like your post! In any case, if the Copilot widget was added on Mac ahead of the Prefs > Proofing Tools check box that's meant to go with it, that's a pretty bad UX bug (atop the bad UX of Copilot itself), and I am sorry.

[gullyfoyle]

((hugs))
This video is not safe for work, but at least that's one problem you don't have anymore....

https://youtu.be/wwQjy_ZTaRM?si=D9UDsZBcpAG4zs4R

[luzula]

I see you solved the problem, but I wanted to say that the open-source Libre Office, which I've used for ages, has so far not inserted any AI. It looks pretty much like older Word, and may be an option if Word is fucked up again.

[asakiyume]

I had the exact same problem: I’m using a version that supposedly doesn’t have Copilot at all, and suddenly last night, there was the icon on every doc. I had chat support w/someone who was using an AI assistant (hilarious screenshot proof), was on for about 45 minutes, deinstalled and reinstalled, all to no avail. Finally I said I needed to go and would try later. 🤬

[marginaliana]

I suspect I have escaped the floating button in my corporate version of Word by means of having an institutional copilot subscription which means we have a separate tab on the toolbar, so they've put all the bullshit there instead. Then again, they hold all Word updates for a month to test them for disaster before they roll them out to us so if the update just happened, maybe next month I will also be screaming about this. Yay Microsoft. Congrats for your absurd trash fix, though?

[movingfinger]

Oh, gods, I am going to have to cope with this problem myself, I suspect, even though my motto is "Never update."

[kathmandu]

Offering my sincerest sympathy on the violation of someone sneaking into your computer and Messing With Your Stuff. The nerve of them. The outrage.

And congratulations on fixing it, even if it did require a brute-force solution.