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You can turn off AI, but you can disconnect or stop using AI whenever you want, or disable the service. To stop using it, simply close the pages or apps where you are interacting with it. If you are on a platform with AI enabled for specific queries, you can pause or disable automatic suggestions or assistance in some cases, depending on the available settings.
AI chatbots have the potential to distract or even invade users' privacy if they are not used or implemented with caution. They are designed to interact in a fluid and continuous manner, which can encourage the user to spend more time than intended in the conversation. In contexts such as work or study, this can become a significant distraction, diverting attention from important tasks.
Privacy is also an important concern, especially when chatbots are associated with services that collect and store user data to improve the experience.
So, if you want to disable various services and features from major AI-powered technology platforms like Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple, you can do that too. Each of these companies offers options to manage, pause, and disable certain services associated with data collection, personalization, and AI. We’ll walk you through the steps for each below.
Google...To disable or limit the use of AI services on Google, you can adjust various privacy and personalization settings.
Google currently doesn’t offer a way to completely disable or filter out AI Overviews for end users, as this feature is part of the standard search experience. However, you can adjust your Google search experience.
AI Overviews, also known as Google SGE (Search Generative Experience), is an AI feature built into Google Search that provides an AI-generated summary or overview of topics you’ve searched for.
On Google Search, you can still access the traditional list of search results. When you search for something like “strawberry pie recipe,” Google typically shows an AI-generated summary at the top of the page. However, if you scroll down or click on the “All” or “Web” tab, you’ll see the traditional links to search results as before, including recipe sites and blogs.
This view with direct links to websites is still an option for those who prefer to browse results in the traditional way. If the AI-powered interface isn’t your thing, this is a handy way to bypass it and get a more traditional search experience.
You can stop Google from storing a record of your searches and web activity by going to the My Activity dashboard and turning off the Web & App Activity toggle. This setting pauses the storage of web searches, interactions with Google apps, and related activity in your account, including your location and browsing history.
To turn off Web & App Activity, go to My Google Account, go to Data & Privacy, under Activity settings, click Web & App Activity, and turn off the toggle. You can pause your activity so that Google doesn’t use browsing and interaction data for personalization. In the same section, you can also turn off Location History and YouTube History.
In addition, you can set up automatic deletion of older activity (3, 18, or 36 months) so that Google periodically removes the data.
To turn off ad personalization, under Data & Privacy > Ad Personalization, you can turn off ad personalization. This will limit Google's use of your data for personalized targeting, but will still show you ads that are not personalized.
To turn off Google Assistant, go to Settings > Google Assistant > General and turn off the option.
To turn off personalized search results, go to Google Search Settings, in the Personalized results section, you can turn off to prevent Google from personalizing search results based on your activity.
For Gmail: In Gmail settings, turn off writing suggestions and autocomplete. For Google Docs: In Tools > Preferences, you can adjust or turn off writing suggestions.
Meta...Unfortunately, there is also no direct way to completely disable Meta AI in apps like Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. However, you can mute the chatbot in each app to reduce notifications and interactions:
Facebook and Instagram: In the Meta AI chat, go to Settings (“i” icon) and choose Mute.
WhatsApp: In the Meta AI chat, tap Notifications and select Always Mute.
Messenger: Follow the same process using the Meta AI tab.
These actions minimize interactions, but do not disable the feature completely.
In regions with stricter data protection laws, such as the European Union and the United Kingdom, individuals have the right to deny Meta access to personal information. These regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), require companies to ask for explicit consent to collect and use data and give users options to limit the sharing of personal information. This includes the right to refuse to have data used for ad personalization and other specific purposes.
The LGPD in Brazil provides users with similar rights to those under the GDPR, such as the right to access, correct, and delete personal data, as well as the right to restrict the processing of information.
Brazilians can request that Meta and other companies limit the use of their personal data, especially for marketing and personalization purposes.
However, the application of these rights depends on how the company implements privacy options and how the LGPD is interpreted and enforced, which is still evolving in the country.
Microsoft...To disable AI capabilities in Microsoft products, such as Microsoft Copilot in Microsoft 365 or Bing Chat in Edge, there are a few general methods you can follow.
If you have Microsoft Copilot integrated with Microsoft 365 and want to disable it:
Organizational level (Microsoft 365 admin):
Microsoft 365 admins can control access to Copilot for the entire organization.
Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center (https://admin.microsoft.com).
Navigate to the Settings section and select Services & add-ons.
Find Copilot and change the activation settings.
Individual level:
If you don’t have administrative control, you may not be able to disable it directly, as this is usually done by your administrator.
Contact your organization’s support team so they can adjust these settings.
If Bing Chat in the Edge browser is enabled and you want to disable it:
Open Microsoft Edge.
Click the Settings icon (three dots in the top right corner).
Go to Settings > Sidebar.
In the Discover section, turn off the Show Bing Chat in the sidebar option.
This will prevent Bing Chat from automatically appearing in the browser sidebar.
Windows Copilot is an assistant that lives in the Windows 11 sidebar and provides AI-powered responses and suggestions:
Right-click the Taskbar.
Select Taskbar Settings.
Turn off the Copilot (Preview) option to remove the Copilot icon from the taskbar.
Some apps like Microsoft Teams are also integrating AI for smart suggestions and transcriptions.
In Microsoft Teams, go to Settings > Privacy.
Check your smart suggestions settings and turn off anything you don’t want enabled.
In LinkedIn, go to Settings & Privacy > Data Privacy > Data for GenAI Improvement and turn off the toggle.
Apple...To turn off Apple Intelligence (AI features and smart suggestions) on your iPhone or iPad, here are some steps you can take. These settings help reduce the automatic suggestions and learning capabilities that Apple uses to personalize your experience on your device.
Siri and Apple Intelligence suggestions include recommendations for apps, contacts, and automatic actions.
Open Settings and go to Siri & Search.
In the Siri Suggestions section, turn off:
Suggestions in Search
Suggestions on Lock Screen
Suggestions on Home Screen
Suggestions when Sharing
To prevent app-specific suggestions, scroll to the bottom of the page in Siri & Search, select an app, and turn off Show Siri Suggestions and Allow when Search for each app you want to remove from suggestions. This prevents the system from suggesting apps, contacts, and other features based on your habits.
Turn off Siri Shortcuts suggestions:
In Settings > Siri & Search, scroll to each app and turn off Suggest Shortcuts to prevent Siri from suggesting automated actions for those apps.
Turn off predictive learning and analytics:
iOS uses AI learning to improve suggestions based on your behaviors. To turn off sending this data and local learning:
Go to Settings > Privacy & Security
Tap Analytics & Improvements
Turn off Share iPhone Analytics and Improve Siri & Dictation
Turn off AI in Photos (Memories and Object Recognition)
The Photos app uses AI to identify faces and objects and create automatic Memories.
Go to Settings > Photos.
Turn off Memories and Featured Memories
Turn off Live Text (text recognition):
Live Text lets you select text in images and photos, using AI to recognize words and numbers.
Go to Settings > General > Language & Region.
Turn off Live Text.
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