Microsoft Silently Tagged Your VS Code Commits as AI-Generated Even With Copilot Turned Off
Microsoft quietly slipped a “Co-Authored-by Copilot” line into Git commits inside Visual Studio Code, and it was happening even for developers who had completely turned off AI features. The move went largely unnoticed until the developer community caught it and erupted in backlash across GitHub and Hacker News.
The Microsoft Copilot VS Code commits change was pushed through by a Microsoft product manager and merged by a principal engineer, reportedly without any description attached to the pull request. That alone raised red flags, but what inflamed developers further was that the co-authorship tag was being inserted even when no AI had been involved in writing the code at all.
Dmitriy Vasyura, the Microsoft developer behind the change, acknowledged the error publicly. He admitted the feature should never have activated with AI turned off, and that flagging commits as AI-generated when no AI was used was simply wrong. He said the default behaviour would be reverted in VS Code version 1.119.
But the apology hasn’t fully cooled things down. Many in the community suspect Microsoft was using the silent tag to inflate Copilot’s usage metrics, a serious accusation that the company has not addressed directly. There are also practical concerns: the hidden line in the commit window could expose companies to legal complications around copyright or violate internal policies that restrict AI tool usage. For teams operating under strict AI governance rules, even a passive tag like this could be a compliance issue.
The GitHub discussion thread has since been locked, reportedly for spam, a decision that has added another layer of frustration for developers who wanted the conversation to continue openly.
