Reports that the tech giant is taking user data through its best known business software to train its AIs follows a global crash on Monday.

Software giant Microsoft is telling the world that it does not use data from Word or Excel for training any AI models.

Microsoft has responded to claims that it has quietly switched on an 'opt-out' feature that enables the scraping of Word and Excel files for AI training.

According to software giant, Microsoft, it was all just a big misunderstanding, reminiscent of Adobe’s incident earlier this year.

The setting in question 'only enables features requiring internet access like co-authoring a document,' Microsoft says.

The controversy erupted as social media users speculated the possibility based on the "opt-out" feature inside Microsoft 365 Suite

Microsoft 365 is down, with users reporting issues with Teams, Outlook, Word and Excel. Microsoft has said it is 'investigating access issues' and is working to fix the problem

Microsoft has denies rumors of using Microsoft 365 customer data data to train AI models. The company took to social media and shared statements to explain its Connected Experiences within Microsoft 365.

Confusion over Connected Experiences settings in 365 apps spark concerns Microsoft's Connected Experiences option in its productivity suite has been causing consternation amid accusations that the default setting might allow Microsoft to train AI models using customers' Word and Excel documents and other data.