One of the biggest questions I get at Drop-In Time at the library (besides "what is taking up all my cloud storage??) is how to disable or avoid intrusive AI that shows up where people don't want it.
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I have consolidated many of these suggestions into a document with a few other links. Anything major that I am missing? This is mostly for the types of users I interact with (mainly older adults) so I did not include things like Slack and I'm not sure about things I don't use much like Outlook or Facebook. Other suggestions for links about removing AI geared towards not-very-technical people?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nYLmQLYZy_Mg-Dh6iME6R61Jjh4L6sRrw1v2dLXs9aE/edit?usp=sharing
@jessamyn I don't really use them, but what about other MS products? Especially Office, 365.
I haven't reviewed these but may be helpful:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/privacy/turn-off-copilot-in-microsoft-365-apps
https://www.easytweaks.com/stop-copilot-in-outlook-365/ -
@rrb @cynblogger Yep was looking for something with maximum collaboration options and then I will probably self-host when I've got it more into its final form.
@jessamyn @cynblogger I hate putting any of my thoughts into anything Googly.
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RE: https://mastodonapp.uk/@taoish/116884161402249680
One of the biggest questions I get at Drop-In Time at the library (besides "what is taking up all my cloud storage??) is how to disable or avoid intrusive AI that shows up where people don't want it. I'm going to make a handout that explains how to do some of the basic AI-removal or AI-avoidance things.
Would appreciate links which give simple steps to do this for the most-used (Siri, Alexa, Gemini, Copilot, Firefox's AI nonsense &c.) so I can collate and synthesize. Thanks!
@jessamyn I love AI.
I want an AI girlfriend to gimme a hard on etc I want it all!
I want it to cook for me and it gives me cheapest nearest junk food to put in microwave for under 3$ -
@jessamyn I love AI.
I want an AI girlfriend to gimme a hard on etc I want it all!
I want it to cook for me and it gives me cheapest nearest junk food to put in microwave for under 3$@zer0unplanned Then this is not for you.
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@jessamyn BTW, Mastodon shows "Post unavailable" - just in case something was supposed to be quoted here.
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@zer0unplanned Then this is not for you.
@jessamyn I made like 5 different LLM's with open source compiling huggingface (cmake as its a .cpp) then get the gguf of the model of wish and run it on localhost wit a RAG system to make it deliver quality. 3 different OS's
So it runs with no internet, no API no thing else then what I fed it as RAG usually manpages. This what you say is not for me indeed. Apart from the rag it falls back to it's native db from 2023.
The scraping of the man-pages and official docs happen with a friendly HTML request. to then orchestrate (with a script mostly Py) to make my LLM read it.
So In short I know a lot about it and I stick to my point that I hate corporate AI but love AI.
My UI is any browser with URL address 127.0.0.1/8080 or 0.0.0.0/8080
So every closed session or browser shut down means all is gone.
You'll click those 2 links just to get nothing because there is no server up there, and that is what the launch up command is once in the directory . I'll get the interface that forgets all once closed. -
@richlv Yeah that's a weird Mastodon propagation thing I think. The post I quote-posted is publicly available bet maybe there's some "no quote posting" setting he has on. If you can follow this link that's the original thing.
@jessamyn @richlv@mastodon.social
I don't think I have no quote-tweet on; where would I check? -
@jessamyn @richlv@mastodon.social
I don't think I have no quote-tweet on; where would I check?OK, I checked, it is NOT the setting that Rich helpfully mentioned. Also, in case this helps, I never saw Richls's reply, just jessamyn's response to it.
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@murtaugh I love that as an idea.
@jessamyn it would need a perfect domain in order to be as useful as possible. sadly how.to is an AI-generated ad-filled dumpster
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@antony Google is loaded with AI, much of which is turn-offable and mine is all turned off. It does allow for good collaboration. Once this doc feels more "final form-ish" I will self host somewhere with no AI. The irony is not lost on me, but realistically people are using what they use, they just want the AI in it to be less-intrusive.
Trying not to be the reply guy, but may I please challenge the assumption that you have "turned AI off"?
Sure, maybe you clicked a toggle on something, maybe you then see changes on the screen, but if there's a way to tell whether google is or isn't still using AI on your stuff (but just not showing you) I haven't heard about it. What am I missing?
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Trying not to be the reply guy, but may I please challenge the assumption that you have "turned AI off"?
Sure, maybe you clicked a toggle on something, maybe you then see changes on the screen, but if there's a way to tell whether google is or isn't still using AI on your stuff (but just not showing you) I haven't heard about it. What am I missing?
@mrose @antony Yep point taken and I will happily change this title to "How to keep intrusive AI from getting in your way when you're just trying to do a thing." There's no way (that I know of) to be entirely free from AI if you use large scale tech, but the question I get at the public library in my rural town remains "How do I turn it off" and what they mean is "How do I stop various AI 'helpers' from getting in my way as I muddle through my tech environment?"
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@mrose @antony Yep point taken and I will happily change this title to "How to keep intrusive AI from getting in your way when you're just trying to do a thing." There's no way (that I know of) to be entirely free from AI if you use large scale tech, but the question I get at the public library in my rural town remains "How do I turn it off" and what they mean is "How do I stop various AI 'helpers' from getting in my way as I muddle through my tech environment?"
I appreciate the reply. I imagine that most folks coming into the library adopt big tech because there's no cost, but the price they pay is their privacy. It's a tradeoff worth mentioning. Funny though how big tech seeks to leverage sales out of those who can afford it least.
I am lucky to be able to afford to pay the modest monthly fee for my email service and prioritize my contribution to my mastodon host too. Joining the fediverse was one of the best things I've recently done. -
I appreciate the reply. I imagine that most folks coming into the library adopt big tech because there's no cost, but the price they pay is their privacy. It's a tradeoff worth mentioning. Funny though how big tech seeks to leverage sales out of those who can afford it least.
I am lucky to be able to afford to pay the modest monthly fee for my email service and prioritize my contribution to my mastodon host too. Joining the fediverse was one of the best things I've recently done.@mrose The thing that is so challenging about helping people with tech in 2026 is that by now they've likely already gotten themselves embedded with some kind of big tech whether it's AOL or Comcast or AT&T. It can be hard to extricate yourself, or expensive, or it can alienate you from your support network. We have a local great fiber company, and just a little bit more expensive. But you have to find a new way to get "plain old tv" which would not be hard for you or I but impossible for them.
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@mrose The thing that is so challenging about helping people with tech in 2026 is that by now they've likely already gotten themselves embedded with some kind of big tech whether it's AOL or Comcast or AT&T. It can be hard to extricate yourself, or expensive, or it can alienate you from your support network. We have a local great fiber company, and just a little bit more expensive. But you have to find a new way to get "plain old tv" which would not be hard for you or I but impossible for them.
@mrose I am definitely with you on the value of Mastodon. I use small hosts for most of my web content, rent my own account. Use self-hosted Wordpress (imperfect but okay). One of these days I should move to some other email service, but today (with many other things to do) is not that day.
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I have consolidated many of these suggestions into a document with a few other links. Anything major that I am missing? This is mostly for the types of users I interact with (mainly older adults) so I did not include things like Slack and I'm not sure about things I don't use much like Outlook or Facebook. Other suggestions for links about removing AI geared towards not-very-technical people?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nYLmQLYZy_Mg-Dh6iME6R61Jjh4L6sRrw1v2dLXs9aE/edit?usp=sharing
@jessamyn Great job!
I would replace ‘end users’ with people at the beginning.
Going beyond suggesting duck duck go would be setting it as their homepage and / or default search engine.
So far the Apple 27 betas (Mac, iPhone, iPad) have removed the disable Apple Intelligence button.
Hopefully the trick of changing Siri to a language that doesn’t match the system language (English UK would do it) will still disable it. Be prepared to make an edit there this fall. -
@jessamyn Great job!
I would replace ‘end users’ with people at the beginning.
Going beyond suggesting duck duck go would be setting it as their homepage and / or default search engine.
So far the Apple 27 betas (Mac, iPhone, iPad) have removed the disable Apple Intelligence button.
Hopefully the trick of changing Siri to a language that doesn’t match the system language (English UK would do it) will still disable it. Be prepared to make an edit there this fall.@ridogi Thanks for all those suggestions.
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@ridogi Thanks for all those suggestions.
@jessamyn also Apple mail app (Mac, iPhone, iPad) auto sorting mail into categories isn’t actually part of Apple Intelligence so the global off button won’t disable it. The end of this describes how to shut it off, but doesn’t clarify that if you have multiple accounts you have to do it in the inbox of each account as well as the all inboxes view.
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/iphfe4a36baf/ios
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A anderslund@expressional.social shared this topic
