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LG Will Let TV Owners Delete Microsoft Copilot After Customer Outcry (theverge.com) 39

Posted by BeauHD from the good-riddance dept.
LG said it will let owners of its TVs delete Microsoft's Copilot shortcut after several reports highlighted the unremovable icon. In a statement to The Verge, LG says the company "respects consumer choice and will take steps to allow users to delete the shortcut icon if they wish." From the report: Last week, a user on the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit posted an image of the Microsoft Copilot icon in their lineup of apps on an LG TV, with no option to delete it. "My LG TV's new software update installed Microsoft Copilot, which cannot be deleted," the post says. The post garnered more than 36,000 upvotes as people grow more frustrated with AI popping up just about everywhere.

Both LG and Samsung announced plans to add Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant to their TVs in January, but it appears to be popping up on LG TVs following a recent update to webOS. [LG spokesperson Chris De Maria] clarifies that the icon is a "shortcut" to the Microsoft Copilot web app that opens in the TV's web browser, rather than "an application-based service embedded in the TV." He also adds that "features such as microphone input are activated only with the customer's explicit consent." There's no word on when LG will roll out the ability to delete the Copilot icon.
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LG Will Let TV Owners Delete Microsoft Copilot After Customer Outcry More

LG Will Let TV Owners Delete Microsoft Copilot After Customer Outcry

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  • Not good enough. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MachineShedFred ( 621896 ) on Thursday December 18, 2025 @08:54PM (#65868055) Journal

    How about you let us "opt in" instead, so I don't waste my time, bandwidth, and electricity installing shit that I am going to want to immediately uninstall? Or are you counting on the fact that your software engineers are going to make the "opt-out" control impossible to find, and give big scary warnings that cause people to think twice so you can still maximize your data scraping?

    Sounds like "opting out" of buying LG is still the right way to go.

    • Never a TV to the internet, and instead connect it to a computer with a free OS.
      • You can delete the icon - that is very specific - apparently you cannot delete the program.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Mirddes ( 798147 )

        i too have connected many SmartTVs to computers as monitors; without network connectivity they are the best value large format high resolution panels on the market. the absence of wake functionality commonly seen on monitors whereby you move the mouse to turn it on IS THE ONLY DOWNSIDE. no apps, not bullshit, just lots of pixels taking up my entire field of view.

        how long until this final flaw is solved? i just want wake on mouse support without having to buy a custom CEC module per display; why the fuck hav

        • Ohh yeah, boikot the HDMI, if you can! We will not accept you, not give you the full spec. Know what? Your latest "protections" will be hacked, with little expense, hackers are smarter than you.

      • The irony is that webOS (LG via HP and Palm) has been available under an open source license.

        I don't own an LG tv, so I can't vouch whether you can install your own customized distro.

        ( There was a community LuneOS fork for various handhelds - I tried it once on Nexus 4. But I'm not sure how current it is with respect to source code from LG.)

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by DrXym ( 126579 )
          I very much doubt it since the OS is just the bit on top of which the EPG, web apps, DLNA client and all the rest run. Not to mention the drivers that tune the TV, set the input / outputs, listen to IR, configure wifi etc. I also expect the OS and proprietary software is all running from a partition protected by a bootloader and there is a small amount of writable flash for storing preferences and downloaded apps. It's possible there is a serial line on the board or a port knock which would open up the TV f

          • I checked the web site, it seems like it only supports Raspberry Pi. No flashing the OS to an actual TV!

            https://www.webosose.org/ [webosose.org]

            So just get a dumb 'gaming monitor', I guess.

            I used to watch live TV on a DVB-T dongle via KDE. Australia hasn't updated their digital TV standard in the 10-15 years since I bought it, so I am good to go.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by kwanbis ( 597419 )
      I mean, come on, it is the best way to achieve what they wanted to achieve, maximum installation. Most people hardly change defaults or whatever they get. Look at WhatsApp as the best example. They have a great dark mode. From my own experience, I believe 5% of the people use it or less? Why, because not only it is not the default, but it was never promoted even. So, even if they came to you with a pop-up that said, do you want to install Copilot? most people will say no. Of course what you propose is the r

    • How about you let us "opt in" instead, so I don't waste my time, bandwidth, and electricity installing shit that I am going to want to immediately uninstall? Or are you counting on the fact that your software engineers are going to make the "opt-out" control impossible to find, and give big scary warnings that cause people to think twice so you can still maximize your data scraping?

      Sounds like "opting out" of buying LG is still the right way to go.

      Fighting to ensure we always have a way to suspend or manually control software updates no matter the vendor, sounds like the way to go.

      If Microsoft has one smart TV vendor in their pocket, they have more. This behavior can get collusive real quick-like.

    • so I don't waste my time, bandwidth, and electricity installing shit

      You did none of that on your LG TV. It happened without your interaction, it used fuck all of your bandwidth, and the electricity was used to apply an OS update anyway.

      There's many reasons to not like this, but you should focus on the ones that matter.

      • Reasons that matter, like "I don't want that shit on my TV, and it wasn't a 'feature' when I bought it and now you are shoving it down my throat" ?

        Pretty sure I covered that in my objection if you read a little more context into it.

        Not that it matters too much for me - the only LG TV in my house is in a guest bedroom, with a Google Chromecast hanging off of it so nobody ever has to deal with the dumpster fire UI that is WebOS and their unusable "I thought the Diamond Multimedia Gyromouse Pro from 1999 was a

  • From the article: LG says the company "respects consumer choice..."
    What a fraking crock.

  • My LG TVs are only connected to the HDMI cable, I haven't given them the WiFi password.

    • Give them time. These asshats will figure out how to pump and dump that sweet private data through the HDMI cables (or port) if the TV has no Internet connection. Never underestimate the greed and underhandedness of technology companies.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Z80a ( 971949 )

        They can just do what several TV vendors are already doing and blocking you from using the TV if you don't give it internet.

    • Password? Why not adjust the antenna every time you get up to change the channel ? You can rotate those damned bunny-ears to receive or reject any content. The antenna  of-course sits right beside the channel knob ...

  • Just the icon? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by RitchCraft ( 6454710 )

    Delete the icon only? Does that mean CoPilot will still be snooping around in the background? Today's technology (and tech companies) sucks balls.

  • Anyone remember the big hullabaloo about the IE icon installed by default on Windows computers?

    Gemini:

    "The "hullabaloo" about the Internet Explorer (IE) icon on Windows computers was centered on major antitrust lawsuits in the late 1990s, where Microsoft was accused of leveraging its Windows operating system monopoly to unfairly dominate the web browser market."

    For all the anti-trusters out there, how'd that work out?

    "In the late 1990s, Microsoft began including IE as a default, non-removable part of Window

    • Gemini correctly pointed out that the hullabaloo was for a completely different reason.

      Here: LG users don't want CoPilot (or any AI bullshit) installed on their TV.
      IE on Windows: It was other companies complaining about a monopoly install, the users actually benefitted from having a browser and frequently it was one of the first things they went and got.

      Additionally literally none of the anti-trust implications apply here either as bundling is a standard practice throughout the industry and their OS and abi

  • Great! Now do the same of Office.

    After they added copilot to the ribbon in all office apps I figured it how to hide it. Then, yesterday, office auto updated to add it back as a free floating button that cannot be hidden. I had to roll back to a previous version, and then disable auto update.

    i get that some folks like using AI to do their work, but I donâ(TM)t. I should not lose useful screen space just so that MS can artificially inflate their copilot usage stats through dark patterns (basically p
  • They'll always be "Lucky Goldstar" to me - their original name, and the most cheesy sounding name you can think of. Just like KFC will always be Kentucky Fried Chicken. And Lucky Goldstar would be lucky for me to even consider purchasing their wares... which I probably wouldn't. Anyway, with TVs, I treat them like I treat my Chinese-made CCTV cams - contained in their own private VLAN and firewalled off with no Internet access. I can pin-hole connections on my LAN router, if/when I ever need to. Generally

  • LG says that after public outcry they have decided to allow consumers to "delete the shortcut icon". Interesting phrasing - almost as if Copilot will still be on the TV but out of site.

  • Do people even use the stupid "smart" stuff on the telly?

    I mean, our telly is technically smart, but the ethernet cable isn't plugged in. There's nothing on there that's actually useful anyway. I tried the built-in YouTube thing once, but it was too janky to be usable, so I didn't try it twice. The dongle stick things are better. The backlight's a bit fucked, anyway, and I don't really watch the telly myself.

  • WHY, OH WHY does my TV need AI... Play the program I ask for. I dont need something telling me I might like this...

  • Fuck you mother fuckers. FUCK YOU MOTHERFUCKERS.

    And, just in case it wasn't clear, fuck you, mother fuckers.

    YOU do not get to control how I use a product that I bought. *I* get to control it. I will not buy your shit. I would rather sit in a 6x10 room with white walls for the rest of my life than PAY for someone else to determine what I can or can not do.

    Just to show how fundamentally I am against this concept: Fuck you mother fuckers.

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