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I Don’t Want AI on Everything: How to Turn It Off

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I Don’t Want AI on Everything: How to Turn It Off

If you’ve caught yourself muttering “i dont want ai on everything please”, you’re not overreacting. You’re noticing a real pattern. AI summaries in search.Still buttons in browsers.Yet writing nudges inside email. OS-level assistants popping up when all you wanted was… a normal interface. Quiet. Predictable.

And honestly, the “helpful” layer is sometimes the annoying layer. It adds clutter, it messes with muscle memory, and depending on the feature, it can push your stuff off-device.

Key takeaways

  • You usually can’t delete AI from existence, but you can dial it way down with a handful of targeted toggles and better defaults.
  • Google AI Overviews can’t be fully disabled for everyone. But “Web” mode and udm=14 get you back to link-only results.
  • In Chrome, you can hide or disable multiple AI entry points using Settings URLs and chrome://flags.
  • On Apple devices, turning off Apple Intelligence removes the on-device models and can reclaim storage. Apple says the models download after enabling, and it lists ~7 GB storage needed on device.
  • In Microsoft 365, you can disable Copilot per app using the Enable Copilot checkbox. Supported versions vary by app and platform.
  • For Gemini, you can turn off Gemini Apps Activity. Even with activity off, Google says chats may be kept up to 72 hours for service and feedback processing.

Why “i dont want ai on everything please” is a totally reasonable stance

I like AI when I’m asking for it. I don’t love the “AI everywhere, all the time, by default” vibe. Especially when:

Accuracy matters. Google even warns AI responses can be wrong in Search. And yeah, we’ve all seen the spectacularly weird examples.

Attention matters too. Extra UI is still mental overhead. Those little buttons and panels cost more focus than they’re worth.

Then there’s privacy. Some features send page content, prompts, or signals based on your history back to the vendor’s servers. Not always.But in every case. But often enough to make you squint at the settings.

So let’s skip the philosophy debate and do the practical thing. Turn down the noise.

Google Search: reduce AI Overviews

Reality check: you can’t fully turn off AI Overviews

Google’s help docs say AI Overviews are broadly rolled out and can appear when Google thinks they’re useful. Same docs also admit AI can make mistakes. There’s no universal “off” switch for everyone. Consumer Reports and a bunch of guides basically land on the same message.

You can dodge them.So can’t nuke them.

Option A: use the Web filter

When you’re on results:

  1. Click the Web tab. Sometimes it’s tucked under More.
  2. You’ll get mostly “ten blue links” behavior, without an AI Overview panel at the top.

Consumer Reports calls this a solid “bypass.”

Option B: set Web-mode as default with udm=14

Engadget and others documented a neat trick. You can set Chrome’s default search to a custom Google “Web” engine using udm=14.

In Chrome:

  1. Open Settings → Search engine → Manage search engines and site search
  2. Under Site search, click Add
  3. Use a URL like:
{google:baseURL}search?udm=14&q=%s
  1. Choose Make default on the new entry

It’s not magic. It’s just the closest thing to “i dont want ai on everything please” for Google Search.

Option C: add -ai to your query

WIRED and PCMag both mention a surprisingly decent hack. Add -ai to the end of your query to suppress AI Overviews. Works best on desktop. Mobile can be a little fickle.

Example:

best zfs scrub schedule -ai

Clunky? Yep. Effective? Often.

Official reference from Google: [AI Overviews in Google Search]

Chrome: remove AI buttons, prompts, and sharing

Chrome is where the AI creep can feel the most in-your-face, because it’s sitting between you and literally everything.

Disable the AI Mode entry point

Some Chrome builds show an “AI Mode” entry point in the omnibox. The Opus guide and others recommend turning it off via flags:

  1. Go to chrome://flags
  2. Search AI Mode Omnibox entrypoint
  3. Set to Disabled
  4. Relaunch

Turn off “Help me write”

If you don’t want AI writing suggestions showing up in web text fields, you can toggle it off. Some Chrome versions expose an AI settings page.

Try:

  • chrome://settings/ai/helpMeWrite and disable Offer writing help

Turn off Gemini UI and content sharing

The Register also points to these settings pages, depending on your Chrome version or channel:

  • chrome://settings/ai/gemini for Gemini visibility, system tray shortcut, and page content sharing
  • chrome://settings/ai/historySearch for the AI-powered history search toggle

If you don’t see them, you’re probably not on a build that has those features. Annoying, but normal.

If you’ve been generally irritated by Google product changes, same. I wrote about vibe here: Google antigravity is unusable now

Gmail: disable AI-assisted writing

Consumer Reports points out the usual suspects. On the web:

  1. Gmail → click the gear icon → See all settings
  2. Turn off:
    • Smart Compose
    • Smart Compose personalization
    • Smart Reply

You may also see broader “Smart features” style settings across Google products. Just be careful. Turning off the big umbrella switches can disable convenience features you actually want. Spam detection usually isn’t part of this bucket, but some other helpful bits can be.

Android: tame Gemini and its activity logging

Here’s the detail people miss, and it matters.

Google says when Keep Activity is off, conversations may still be retained up to 72 hours to provide the service and process feedback. And those chats won’t show up in your Gemini Apps Activity log. Also, if you’re 18+, Keep Activity is on by default. That’s directly from Google’s Gemini Apps Help page.

What I do in practice, because I don’t like surprises:

  1. Open the Gemini app → Profile → Gemini Apps Activity
  2. Turn it off. Optionally choose “turn off and delete activity”
  3. Check Gemini “Apps” and integrations, then disable anything you don’t want it touching

Official doc: Manage & delete your Gemini Apps activity (Google Help)

iPhone/Mac: turn off Apple Intelligence (or restrict it)

Apple’s setup is different. On supported devices, Apple Intelligence involves downloading on-device models after enabling. Apple also says turning it off removes those models.

Useful specifics from Apple Support:

  • Requires iOS 18.1 / iPadOS 18.Still / macOS Sequoia 15.1 or later, depending on device
  • Apple lists ~7 GB storage needed on device. Not required for Apple Watch
  • Turn off Apple Intelligence and Apple says the on-device models are removed

Two routes, depending on how hard you want to slam the brakes.

Option A: turn off Apple Intelligence completely

  • Settings → Apple Intelligence & Siri → toggle Apple Intelligence off

Consumer Reports documents the path. Apple documents the model download and removal behavior on its own page.

Option B: block specific features using Screen Time

Apple provides a dedicated control page:

  • Settings → Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions → Intelligence & Siri
  • Disable the pieces you don’t want, like writing or image creation

Apple docs.

Microsoft Office: turn off Copilot per app

Microsoft’s support doc is refreshingly specific.

To disable Copilot in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint on desktop:

  1. Open the app, say Excel
  2. Go to File → Options → Copilot
  3. Clear Enable Copilot
  4. Restart the app

Microsoft also notes:

  • The checkbox is per app and per device
  • As of March 13, 2025, it’s supported in specific minimum versions. Example given is Word 2412 on Windows, and versions vary by app and platform
  • You can’t turn off Copilot in the iOS, Android, or web versions the same way

Official doc: Turn off Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps (Microsoft Support)

The quick “i dont want ai on everything please” checklist

If you only do five things, do these:

  1. Set Google Search default to Web mode using udm=14
  2. Disable Chrome’s AI Mode omnibox entry point in chrome://flags
  3. Turn off Gmail Smart Compose and Smart Reply
    4.Still off Gemini Apps Activity and delete history if you want
    5.But off Apple Intelligence or restrict it via Screen Time

Common mistakes when you’re trying to turn all this off

Assuming one toggle disables everything. It doesn’t. Settings are split across Search, browser, OS, and individual apps. It’s like playing whack-a-mole, except the moles have menus.

Only hiding UI instead of stopping data flow. “Unpin” or “remove icon” can make things look calmer, sure. But also hunt for switches labeled “content sharing,” “activity,” or “connected experiences.”

Not re-checking after updates. Browser flags in particular can vanish, rename themselves, or flip back. Yeah. Welcome to 2026.

What now

Wanting less AI doesn’t make you anti-tech. It usually means you want tools that behave the same way tomorrow as they did yesterday. Clean UI. Predictable outputs.

Start with defaults in Search. Then pull the obvious AI entry points out of Chrome. After that, shut off the app-level helpers in Gmail and Office. Finally, lock down the activity controls for Gemini and Apple Intelligence.

If a setting moved, because of course it did, leave a comment with your device, OS, and app version. We’ll track down where the toggle ran off to.

Sources

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