<![CDATA[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.]]>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!

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/topic/4302ed16-fd4c-45de-ac74-44ed765e0bfa/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.RSS for NodeTue, 28 Jul 2026 16:16:27 GMTWed, 08 Jul 2026 17:23:05 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Thu, 16 Jul 2026 16:58:24 GMT]]>@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

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/ridogi/statuses/116930714317333857https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/ridogi/statuses/116930714317333857Thu, 16 Jul 2026 16:58:24 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Thu, 16 Jul 2026 15:45:27 GMT]]>@ridogi Thanks for all those suggestions.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://glammr.us/users/jessamyn/statuses/116930427442320166https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://glammr.us/users/jessamyn/statuses/116930427442320166Thu, 16 Jul 2026 15:45:27 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Thu, 16 Jul 2026 03:28:56 GMT]]>@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.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/ridogi/statuses/116927531370952039https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/ridogi/statuses/116927531370952039Thu, 16 Jul 2026 03:28:56 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Wed, 15 Jul 2026 23:50:55 GMT]]>@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.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://glammr.us/users/jessamyn/statuses/116926674046053504https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://glammr.us/users/jessamyn/statuses/116926674046053504Wed, 15 Jul 2026 23:50:55 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Wed, 15 Jul 2026 23:49:37 GMT]]>@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.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://glammr.us/users/jessamyn/statuses/116926668943616606https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://glammr.us/users/jessamyn/statuses/116926668943616606Wed, 15 Jul 2026 23:49:37 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Wed, 15 Jul 2026 22:09:58 GMT]]>@jessamyn @antony

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.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://universeodon.com/users/mrose/statuses/116926277142473489https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://universeodon.com/users/mrose/statuses/116926277142473489Wed, 15 Jul 2026 22:09:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Wed, 15 Jul 2026 18:21:58 GMT]]>@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?"

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://glammr.us/users/jessamyn/statuses/116925380607689161https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://glammr.us/users/jessamyn/statuses/116925380607689161Wed, 15 Jul 2026 18:21:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Wed, 15 Jul 2026 17:05:36 GMT]]>@jessamyn @antony

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?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://universeodon.com/users/mrose/statuses/116925080286188576https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://universeodon.com/users/mrose/statuses/116925080286188576Wed, 15 Jul 2026 17:05:36 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Wed, 15 Jul 2026 16:03:16 GMT]]>@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

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/murtaugh/statuses/116924835169744125https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/murtaugh/statuses/116924835169744125Wed, 15 Jul 2026 16:03:16 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Wed, 15 Jul 2026 15:03:25 GMT]]>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.

@jessamyn @richlv@mastodon.social

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodonapp.uk/users/taoish/statuses/116924599861068565https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodonapp.uk/users/taoish/statuses/116924599861068565Wed, 15 Jul 2026 15:03:25 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Wed, 15 Jul 2026 03:42:22 GMT]]>@jessamyn @richlv@mastodon.social
I don't think I have no quote-tweet on; where would I check?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodonapp.uk/users/taoish/statuses/116921921856546149https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodonapp.uk/users/taoish/statuses/116921921856546149Wed, 15 Jul 2026 03:42:22 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Tue, 14 Jul 2026 18:29:35 GMT]]>@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.]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://friendica.rogueproject.org/objects/b71a4a1e-216a-5680-0f87-38b431507587https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://friendica.rogueproject.org/objects/b71a4a1e-216a-5680-0f87-38b431507587Tue, 14 Jul 2026 18:29:35 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Tue, 14 Jul 2026 18:16:23 GMT]]>@richlv @jessamyn It probably mean I blocked ya server..]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://friendica.rogueproject.org/objects/b71a4a1e-776a-567c-f753-f2e833950009https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://friendica.rogueproject.org/objects/b71a4a1e-776a-567c-f753-f2e833950009Tue, 14 Jul 2026 18:16:23 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Tue, 14 Jul 2026 18:12:53 GMT]]>@zer0unplanned Then this is not for you.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://glammr.us/users/jessamyn/statuses/116919682539474269https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://glammr.us/users/jessamyn/statuses/116919682539474269Tue, 14 Jul 2026 18:12:53 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Tue, 14 Jul 2026 18:11:16 GMT]]>@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$]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://friendica.rogueproject.org/objects/b71a4a1e-786a-567b-c4b8-721310794569https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://friendica.rogueproject.org/objects/b71a4a1e-786a-567b-c4b8-721310794569Tue, 14 Jul 2026 18:11:16 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Tue, 14 Jul 2026 18:05:00 GMT]]>@jessamyn @cynblogger I hate putting any of my thoughts into anything Googly.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/rrb/statuses/116919651545048359https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/rrb/statuses/116919651545048359Tue, 14 Jul 2026 18:05:00 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:31:45 GMT]]>@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/

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/artychan/statuses/116919520832693539https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/artychan/statuses/116919520832693539Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:31:45 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:21:59 GMT]]>@jessamyn Thanks, that link works (still includes "Post unavailabe" below).

A major side-effect of Mastodon trying to have all kinds of controls around post quoting is that they are useless quite often.
There are settings about this: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/quote-posts/#defaults .

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/richlv/statuses/116919482432654484https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/richlv/statuses/116919482432654484Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:21:59 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:08:18 GMT]]>@jessamyn I fear we don't talk about it enough in our household, but you're right. I've been so focussed on Gemini and OpenAI I hadn't considered Apple as a threat

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.ie/users/antony/statuses/116919428606220154https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.ie/users/antony/statuses/116919428606220154Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:08:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:04:11 GMT]]>@antony Truth! Me and my partner talk about this a lot. If I have Apple Intelligence turned off and he does not, it still gets my texts. It's like a virus!

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://glammr.us/users/jessamyn/statuses/116919412434889828https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://glammr.us/users/jessamyn/statuses/116919412434889828Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:04:11 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:03:05 GMT]]>@jessamyn It raises an interesting question though, if you turn AI off, but I have it enabled, what does Google do? What does it do with hilarious anonymous users? I still love the idea that it could feed back into the machine to teach it how to disable itself. On that note, if I think of anything not already there I'll add it

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.ie/users/antony/statuses/116919408091611044https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.ie/users/antony/statuses/116919408091611044Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:03:05 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:00:32 GMT]]>@sendai @debcha That's a great tool that I did not know about. Added.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://glammr.us/users/jessamyn/statuses/116919398100131360https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://glammr.us/users/jessamyn/statuses/116919398100131360Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:00:32 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Tue, 14 Jul 2026 16:59:33 GMT]]>@sendai I've got a place I can self-host once its in its final form, this was just the easiest "let's get collaborating" option.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://glammr.us/users/jessamyn/statuses/116919394199057098https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://glammr.us/users/jessamyn/statuses/116919394199057098Tue, 14 Jul 2026 16:59:33 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 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. on Tue, 14 Jul 2026 16:58:47 GMT]]>@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.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://glammr.us/users/jessamyn/statuses/116919391168876112https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://glammr.us/users/jessamyn/statuses/116919391168876112Tue, 14 Jul 2026 16:58:47 GMT