Microsoft caught sneaking "Co-Authored-by Copilot" into VS Code commits — even with AI off

Microsoft faced backlash after Visual Studio Code began auto-adding a hidden “Co-Authored-by Copilot” line to commits, even when AI features were disabled.

The behavior appeared in version 1.119 and raised concerns that commit metadata could misrepresent human-authored work.

Critics said the change could affect trust, compliance, AI policy enforcement, and copyright or reporting obligations.

Microsoft said the setting should not have been enabled by default and promised to revert it in a later release.