Copilot dark patterns

We use 365 at work and have about two dozen 365 Copilot licenses for testing with different people/departments.

I don’t have one of those licenses but do have one of our ChatGPT business licenses. We just rolled out the ChatGPT Excel plug-in for testing; it showed up for me a day or two ago after adding it as an app in the Admin Center. When it did I noticed the Copilot button immediately to the left of it on the Ribbon. I didn’t think much of it.

Until today in Outlook Mobile while reading an email. I noticed a NEW label on the triple dot overflow menu. Tapping on it showed the new menu entry to be “Summarize.” I thought that was odd, seeing as how that’s a Copilot feature, I’ve never seen that in Outlook Mobile before, it’s not a new install or anything, I don’t have a 365 Copilot license, and explicitly turn Copilot off where I can. Going back to the email itself I noticed a glowing Copilot icon in the lower right. Going in to Outlook settings confirmed that sure enough, Copilot was now toggled on.

I went back to Excel thinking I’d just remove the Copilot button from the Ribbon. Lo and behold, there seems to be no way to go into the Ribbon settings and remove the button. There also appears to be no options in the plug-in itself to turn it off, nor can I find a toggle in Excel settings to disable it.

Which really isn’t even the point. What is abhorrent here is the fact that this is too coincidental to not be related. Push out the ChatGPT Excel plug-in and it appears with a Copilot button next to it? And then Outlook Mobile gets Copilot toggled back on? Sounds like a dark pattern to me.

Anyone else experience this?