Librarian's Guide: How to Switch Off the AI Baked Into Your Apps and OS

A librarian who fields tech-support questions at public drop-in sessions has compiled a practical, opt-out guide for people who want to strip generative AI out of the software they already use. The document walks through disabling AI features across a wide swath of consumer and productivity tools — Adobe Acrobat and Reader, Android’s Gemini (including reclaiming a hijacked power button), Apple Intelligence and Siri, Windows 11’s Copilot, Google Workspace smart features, Slack, Zoom, Yahoo Mail, and more — with step-by-step menu paths for each.

A recurring theme is that browser vendors are embedding AI at the flag level: the guide points users to chrome://flags and edge://flags to disable GLIC, Gemini, and Copilot integrations, notes Firefox 148’s new global ‘Block AI Enhancements’ toggle, and recommends privacy-oriented alternatives like LibreWolf, Waterfox, and DuckDuckGo’s no-AI search. It also flags subtler traps, such as Apple’s ‘learn from this application’ setting that stays active even when Apple Intelligence is off, and Windows features like text-and-image generation that ship enabled by default across Notepad, Photos, and Snipping Tool.

The underlying significance is less technical than cultural: the guide documents how aggressively AI is being pushed into default-on configurations, often buried in nested settings or welded into the OS so it resists removal. For a technical audience it doubles as a map of where vendors have quietly wired assistants into their products, and a reminder that opting out increasingly requires deliberate, per-app effort — with vendors re-adding on-by-default features over time, so the settings need periodic re-checking.