Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
Advertising Microsoft

Microsoft Copilot Is Now Injecting Ads Into Pull Requests On GitHub (neowin.net) 74

Posted by BeauHD from the would-you-look-at-that dept.
Microsoft Copilot is reportedly injecting promotional "tips" into GitHub pull requests, with Neowin claiming more than 1.5 million PRs have been affected by messages advertising integrations like Raycast, Slack, Teams, and various IDEs. From the report: According to Melbourne-based software developer Zach Manson, a team member used the AI to fix a simple typo in a pull request. Copilot did the job, but it also took the liberty of editing the PR's description to include this message: "Quickly spin up Copilot coding agent tasks from anywhere on your macOS or Windows machine with Raycast." A quick search of that phrase on GitHub shows that the same promotional text appears in over 11,000 pull requests across thousands of repositories. Even merge requests on GitLab aren't safe from the injection.

So what's happening? Well, Raycast has a Copilot extension that can do things like create pull requests from a natural language command. The ad directly names Raycast, so you might think that Raycast is injecting the promo into the PRs to market its own app. But it is more likely that Microsoft is the one doing the injecting. If you look at the raw markdown of the affected pull requests, there is a hidden HTML comment, "START COPILOT CODING AGENT TIPS" placed right just before the ad tip. This suggests Microsoft is using the comment to insert a "tip" that points back to its own developer ecosystem or partner integrations. UPDATE: Following backlash from developers, Microsoft has removed Copilot's ability to insert "tips" into pull requests. Tim Rogers, principal product manager for Copilot at GitHub, said the move was intended "to help developers learn new ways to use the agent in their workflow."

"On reflection," Rogers said he has since realized that letting Copilot make changes to PRs written by a human without their knowledge "was the wrong judgement call."

Microsoft Copilot Is Now Injecting Ads Into Pull Requests On GitHub More | Reply

Microsoft Copilot Is Now Injecting Ads Into Pull Requests On GitHub

Comments Filter:

  • Enshitification of Github Proceeds Apace (Score:5, Insightful)

    by careysub ( 976506 ) on Monday March 30, 2026 @01:08PM (#66069096)

    In our brave new corporate controlled world adds will be inserted everywhere (and all your data belong to them -- you are automatically opted in, and probably cannot really opt out).

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      They tried to warn us.

      Several years ago tinfoil-hatters moved to gitlab, sourcehut etc citing concerns over M$ hosting github.

      Everyone ignored them as leftards but here we are in 2026 with Microsoft a sad reflection of the former selves, operating as a Temu-Google.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Turns out the leftards are right and we do need to listen to them. :(

        • Re:Enshitification of Github Proceeds Apace (Score:4, Insightful)

          by ozzymodus12 ( 8111534 ) on Monday March 30, 2026 @04:32PM (#66069464)
          I don't think Microsoft doing predictable Microsoft monopoly things was a leftard idea thing. It's not political. It's about greed. This is what they have always done. I was hoping someone would eventually address the monopoly. Neither party does anything.

          • Even so much as acknowledging the problems in the world, is instantly deemed "political", by those causing the problems. As they're paying off politicians.

            Nothing can possibly remain apolitical when you're dealing with that.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Tom ( 822 )

            I was hoping someone would eventually address the monopoly. Neither party does anything.

            That's what campaign donations get you, if they are large enough.

            This is why congress occasionally bullies the big tech companies. We all think they might want to have some regulation or to punish them. Oh sweetie... they're saying "nice company you have there... would be a shame if something happened to it..."

          • I don't think Microsoft doing predictable Microsoft monopoly things was a leftard idea thing. It's not political. It's about greed.

            You only think that's not political because you're confusing centrists with leftists.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Junta ( 36770 )

        Though they managed to ultimately extend this github brand to github copilot, that will gladly push stuff to forgejo, gitlab, etc...

      • I saw this come by today... I can't vouch for its absolute correctness as I haven't checked the data they claim to have scraped, but it's a pretty damning indictment on MS's stewardship of Github. From near 100% uptime to quite a lot less than that - I mean, probably not bad enough that you can't rely on it, but you definitely don't want to be in a "I need it back up right now or else I'm screwed" type situation (so don't engineer yourself into such a position).

        https://damrnelson.github.io/g... [github.io]

    • Re:Enshitification of Github Proceeds Apace (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Narcocide ( 102829 ) on Monday March 30, 2026 @02:04PM (#66069222) Homepage

      Leela: "Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?"
      Fry: "Well sure, but not in our dreams! Only on tv and radio...and in magazines...and movies. And at ball games, on buses, and milk cartons, and t-shirts, and bananas, and written on the sky. But not in dreams! No sirree."

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Junta ( 36770 )

      Even worse, they've extended it to tooling that they pitch to developers who use git for anything under the brand affinity of 'github' (which *way* too many people already assumed git == github).

  • Reverse Centaurgirl (Score:5, Funny)

    by Pseudonymous Powers ( 4097097 ) on Monday March 30, 2026 @01:09PM (#66069100)
    Look, this is just the way the software industry works now! No more hiding from the future of development. No more heads in the sand to deny the apotheosis of programming! No more pretending that the new way isn't better! You Luddites are just going to have to come to grips with the fact the Crest Whitening Strips are recommended to the leading competitor's whitening system three to one!

  • Could be worse (Score:5, Funny)

    by Locke2005 ( 849178 ) on Monday March 30, 2026 @01:13PM (#66069112)
    They could have Clippy pop up and say things like, "It looks like you are trying to insert trojans into this encryption code. Would you like help with that?"

  • Clever approach (Score:5, Interesting)

    by TwistedGreen ( 80055 ) on Monday March 30, 2026 @01:13PM (#66069114)

    I really like this approach. The next step would be to put ads directly into the source code. Soon you'll see comments like

    /**
    ** THIS FUNCTION WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY EXPRESSVPN
    ** USE CODE COPILOT26 FOR 90% OFF THE 3 YEAR PLAN
    **/

    You could quickly monetize your open source projects this way.

    • Well, that does mesh with the article about "maybe we should start charging for Open Source".... https://developers.slashdot.or... [slashdot.org]

    • Just wait until OpenAI or Anthropic include that source code as training data. Soon, you'll see Copilot ads all over ChatGPT and Claude.

    • Re:Clever approach (Score:4, Interesting)

      by taustin ( 171655 ) on Monday March 30, 2026 @01:47PM (#66069204) Homepage Journal

      Why comment the ads out? Include the pulling and display of ads as part of every program.

      If I understand correctly, you can have GitHub do the compile for you as well, so there's not need to bother the programmer with details like including their spamware code in the source code they see.

      And once they've proven that the automated compile is more efficient than doing it yourself, why even have the option to do it manually?

      You know that's the end game. And you know they're planning to do that in any complier Microsoft has any control over, as well.

      It's for your own good, after all.

    • Let's see if they'll limit themselves to comments or also inject ads into UI code.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Why stop there? Make it part of the start-up message and if there is none, add one!

  • you jackasses are smart enough to do self hosting (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Big Hairy Gorilla ( 9839972 ) on Monday March 30, 2026 @01:22PM (#66069136)
    so why are using Microshit?

    This is a case where you should blame the victim.
    Also, Jack, it's not too late to self host.
    So get cracking ... spend your time on self improvement, not complaining that they dun it to ya.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Junta ( 36770 )

      Problem being that this is requests from people trying to contribute.

      Even when they avoided github, they got hit.

      I wager at one point, a project that stayed strictly email based will have threads with this sort of slop in it.

      Unless you make your repository and all means of contact with you invite-only, it's going to be hard to avoid.

      • Yeah, I guess invite only is what I am talking about.
        But you have to know who's contributing, so I don't see the problem.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Junta ( 36770 )

          Well, it kind of sucks to have an idea to contribute and no way to contribute because you have to be invited by someone before you can offer...

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Sebby ( 238625 )

            Well, it kind of sucks to have an idea to contribute and no way to contribute because you have to be invited by someone before you can offer...

            It's called "elitism".

    • Re:you jackasses are smart enough to do self hosti (Score:4, Insightful)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Monday March 30, 2026 @02:43PM (#66069290)

      Wow arsehole much? You're so desperate to victim blame you fail to realise it's not the people hosting the project having ads injected, it's the people contributing. What do you suggest contributors do? Call up the lead author and get them to send your the original so you can host it on your own server to do the PR request?

      Yeah there is a jackass here, a victim blaming one.

      • So you're admitting you aren't smart enough to self host?
        Try searching "open source replacements for github", maybe that's more your speed.
        Hit the road Jack.

        • So you're admitting you aren't smart enough to self host?

          Yes I absolutely am not smart enough to ask someone to send me their complete project so I can self host it just to do a PR request and then package it up and send it back to them so they can import it - incidentally this process (which would achieve what you want) would lock a project so that only one person can make a single change at any single point in time. This would be very stupid.

          Now you have two choices: Either admit that you asked something incredibly stupid, or admit you didn't understand the ori

    • Because sometimes the client paying for the work wants it to be on GitHub.

  • I'm so glad I retired in January, no longer have to worry about that type of shit.

  • Title Correction: (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Sebby ( 238625 ) on Monday March 30, 2026 @02:16PM (#66069244) Journal

    Microsoft Copilot Is Now Injecting Ads Into Pull Requests On GitHub

    Microslop Copilot Is Now Injecting Ads Into Pull Requests On GitHub

    There FTFY.

  • If Microsoft is going to put ads in GitHub the people who upload the code should get a cut of the money. The more bugs you fix, the richer you get!

  • Reminder everyone (Score:5, Insightful)

    by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Monday March 30, 2026 @02:41PM (#66069282)

    Microslop does not like you calling them Microslop. It is offensive to call their slop slop and associated slop with Microslop.

  • Ads? (Score:2)

    by allo ( 1728082 )

    Raycast seems to be a Github Feature or official Github Client, no? So I would say it is a self promotion, like when sites want you to install their app, not an ad like in "People who implemented sqlite also implemented oracle"

  • They were using CoPilot to "fix a simple typo?" SMH.

  • Git itself is already distributed.... (Score:3)

    by virtig01 ( 414328 ) on Monday March 30, 2026 @03:10PM (#66069342)

    Moving to Gitlab or another centralized collaboration system is possible, but it's still centralized with all the baggage that includes. Maybe it's time that -- like the source control system itself -- the collaboration layer on top of it is also decentralized. Radicle [radicle.xyz] is one alternative; are there others?

    • I skimmed their website and Radicle looks like a step in the right direction but they have fundamental design issues. You need your issue tracker, project wiki, dev board, etc... all in the same git repo so you can simply check it out and have the full state of the project at that time. Radicle includes some of that but does it through custom git objects. That means you're stuck in their format and with their tools and interface. They should have gone with a text based design with a specific file/folder

  • Such a law would make anything paid for by advertising to also be legally required to have an option of me paying outright cash for use of the service in return for seeing no advertisements, ever, during my subscription period.

    Web sites, streaming, podcasts, social crap, software, github, sports, etc. etc. all would have the legal requirement of offering a paid 'fuck advertising' tier.
    • Companies would inevitably charge more for the ad-free tier than the lower tiers to more than make up the difference in lost advertising. Additionally, the ad-free tier would transition to a partially-ad-free tier every year or two, with an actually-ad-free tier with a higher fee above it.

  • There have been quite a few people working on poisoning the data the AI companies have been snarfing just for this purpose. It's going to get a whole lot worse.

  • Will probably not take long.

  • I can not imagine microsoft doing these edits to code/commit descriptions, I guess it'll be some extra plugin these devs used.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sebby ( 238625 )

      I can not imagine microsoft doing these edits to code/commit descriptions, I guess it'll be some extra plugin these devs used.

      No, it wasn't. [slashdot.org]

  • Time for the total fucking clowns at Microsoft to go home. We're going to need an antitrust case against every product and service at MS. Not our fault, this is squarely Microsoft acting irresponsibly. Office, windows, copilot, bing and Azure must be broken into individual companies

  • leave (Score:2)

    by Tom ( 822 )

    The best time to leave github was when the evil empire bought it. The second best time is now.

    Seriously. Anyone who thought MS wouldn't fuck it up in the same way they fuck up everything they touch can't be helped. It's Microsoft for crying out loud.

  • Sigh (Score:2)

    by ledow ( 319597 )

    Everything needs to be branded or monetised.

    It's why I want large commercial organisations as far away from my data, computers and workflow as possible.

    I do not care about you, I don't want to be reminded you even exist, and I certainly don't want to give you money. Go away.

    I want to turn on my computer, load up the browser of my choice, and that's it. I don't need to see a single brand, no "notifications", no messages of your choosing, nothing. My boot screen is a spinner. My desktop is a flat, blank,

  • Changing your upstream repo away from a commercial service like Github to something else like your own upstream takes 20 seconds if you have to look up the command. That M1cr0s0ft would eventually crappify github was just a matter of time.

    If you need some web interface thingie for your central Git repo-base, I recommend checking out Gitea [github.com].

  • All those poor teachers who will learn about World of Tanks from their pupils' WWII essays.

  • I hate how MS apps I am forced to use for work (Outlook, Teams, word, excel, etc...) have these popup "helpful" tooltips

    yes you can set the apps to not show them but MS decides to force new ones anyway

    yes theres a registry key you can set to "Ok already bothered me TWICE on this" but it requires getting a list of tips / IDs to put in a reg file as it's a case of:

    "to stop the tip you put an entry in this registry key then set the value to one that tells Windows 'yes already showed this twice'"

    its so frigging

Slashdot Top Deals

COMPASS [for the CDC-6000 series] is the sort of assembler one expects from a corporation whose president codes in octal. -- J.N. Gray

Close