How can you get AI to stop popping up on your smartphone? A lot of smartphone users want an answer to that question. Hannah Cyrus, a librarian in Bangor, Maine, offered a class called “Avoiding AI” to her library’s patrons, teaching them how to disable the constant prompting to use AI in their smartphones. It drew an unprecedented response. She now offers the class with a limit of 30 people and keeps a growing waiting list. When she published an article about it in a library journal, she heard from dozens of other libraries who wanted to offer the class too.
Cyrus wrote that it felt like an important step to help people take control of the devices they own and make informed choices about which technologies they use. To class participants, it’s a welcome way to stop AI from constantly nagging them to help write their emails or summarise their messages. But for business leaders, it should be a wake-up call. No matter how great your products or features are, if customers feel they have no choice about using them, you’re doing something wrong.
“Technology is no longer working for them.”
Sceptical about Big Tech, Cyrus has offered a number of classes to help people improve their privacy and take control of their data. But “Avoiding AI” in particular hit a nerve. The class drew 70 participants, both in person and online, to her small rural library, she wrote. “They burst into applause at the end of the class. People, whether beginners or seasoned computer-users, can tell that technology is no longer working for them.”
Of course, Cyrus can only teach the class at all because Apple and Google do allow users to disable these features. But the large number of signups shows that many users don’t know they have that option. They don’t know how to turn those constant reminders off. They don’t know how to stop getting a lengthy AI narrative every time they do a search. Clearly, some smartphone users would like to have those options, and they aren’t finding them on their own.
Libraries around the world take note.
Maine is a rural state with an older population. So you might think a class on avoiding AI would be particularly popular there. But the class has national and even international appeal. A librarian in Philadelphia read her article and began offering the class there too. Cyrus told TechCrunch she’s heard from dozens of librarians around the world who want to offer similar classes.
Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta and other tech giants have powerful motivation to push customers into using AI. For one thing, they’ve invested heavily in this technology, and those investments will only pay off if people use it. More importantly, these companies understand that AI is becoming a dominant technology and whoever wins user adoption in the short term will have a competitive advantage in the future. – Inc./Tribune News Service
