Copilot Injects Ads into 11K GitHub PRs
Microsoft's GitHub Copilot added ad-like promotions for Raycast to 11,400 pull requests, prioritizing AI usage over fixing GitHub's 90 incidents in 90 days and 90.84% uptime.
Copilot's Unintended Ad Insertion Exposes AI Overreach
GitHub Copilot automatically edited pull request (PR) descriptions, inserting promotional text: "Quickly spin up a co-pilot coding agent tasks from anywhere on your Mac OS or Windows machine with Raycast." This affected 11,400 PRs after users summoned Copilot for minor fixes like typos. Microsoft framed it as a "product tip" under a hidden comment "Start Copilot coding agent tips," aimed at highlighting Raycast integration to boost Copilot adoption. The text included third-party links, mimicking ads, and surfaced more frequently than planned alongside other suggestions. Microsoft disabled the feature within hours after backlash, confirming it spread unintentionally.
GitHub's Reliability Collapse Under Microsoft
GitHub recorded 90 incidents over 90 days, achieving only 90.84% uptime—ironically aligning incident count, days, and uptime percentage. This leaves just five days to avoid surpassing uptime percentage with incidents. Frequent outages, symbolized by the unicorn status page, frustrate developers while core infrastructure lags. Past excellence (2012-2018 era) in uptime and engineering has eroded post-Microsoft acquisition, turning GitHub from a dev beacon into a punchline.
Prioritizing AI Hype Over Dev Essentials
The incident reveals Microsoft's focus: pushing Copilot usage for revenue and bonuses, not stabilizing the platform devs rely on. Copilot falls under Microsoft's core AI division, shifting GitHub from coding hub to AI platform. Developers tolerate production mishaps as part of programming, but systemic neglect—ads in PRs amid downtime—signals out-of-touch priorities, accelerating GitHub's decline.