One of the stories to come from Microsoft's Build 2016 developer conference claimed that the company would include a built-in ad blocker in the next version of it's Edge browser. Sadly, Microsoft has confirmed that this isn't true.
The source of the original report stemmed from a slide used in one of the conference sessions titled "Microsoft Edge: What's Next for Microsoft's New Browser and Web Platform." As you can see on line 4 in the image below, one of the features users have requested is "build ad blocking features into the browser."
The status reads that the feature is targeted for the next version of Edge, so it's understandable why so many people assumed Microsoft would be following the likes of Opera and Brave in bringing native ad-blocking to its browser.
Microsoft has, however, admitted that the slide was misleading, and was actually a "reference to work we're already doing in bringing extensions to MS Edge, such as AdBlock and AdBlock Plus."
In other words, the slide isn't actually related to any built-in ad blocking features coming to Edge. It addresses the fact that future versions of the browser will support third-party extensions so users can install ad-blockers, the same way they do with the likes of Chrome and Firefox.
Microsoft recently released Windows 10 insider preview build 14291, which includes extensions for the Edge browser. There are only three extensions in this beta - Mouse Gestures, Microsoft Translator, and Reddit Engagement Suite - but it said that more are on their way, including ones from AdBlock, Adblock Plus, Amazon, LastPass, Evernote and more.