How to Turn Off AI Everywhere

AI Summary

What this is: A free reference guide from librarian Jessamyn West, updated 17 August 2026, that walks through turning off AI features across Windows, Chrome, Gmail, WhatsApp, Zoom, Adobe Acrobat, and more.

Who it’s for: Anyone who wants fewer AI prompts, summaries, and suggestions showing up uninvited in apps they already use.

The key idea: Most AI features ship on by default. Turning them off is usually two or three menu clicks, not a technical project.

Skip if: You want to turn off Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini specifically. Those get their own full walkthroughs: Copilot and Gemini.

A guide called NoToAI.org started making the rounds this week, and the appeal is obvious. It’s one page, written by a librarian. No account required, and it tells you exactly where to click to turn AI features off, across Windows, Chrome, Gmail, WhatsApp, Zoom, and Adobe Acrobat.

AI features arrive turned on by default in most software now, and finding the off switch takes more digging than turning something on ever does. A guide like this one is filling a gap vendors left open.

Table of Contents

What does the guide actually cover?

Jessamyn West runs librarian.net and built the guide after fielding the same question repeatedly during library drop-in help sessions: how do I make the AI stuff stop showing up? The result is a single page with instructions for over a dozen platforms, kept current as vendors move settings around.

Platform	What you can turn off
Windows 11	Copilot, Recall, and related taskbar prompts
Chrome	The built-in AI Nano features
Google Workspace	Gemini suggestions in Gmail and Docs
WhatsApp	Meta AI in chats and search
Zoom	AI Companion meeting summaries
Adobe Acrobat / Reader	AI Assistant document summaries
Apple devices	Apple Intelligence and Siri suggestions
Android	Gemini as the default assistant

The full guide also covers Edge, Firefox, DuckDuckGo, Slack, Amazon Alexa, and Yahoo Mail. It is free, has no signup, and lives at the short URL NoToAI.org.

How do you turn off Copilot and Gemini specifically?

Windows and Android come up most often, so we already have step-by-step walkthroughs with screenshots for both. How to turn off Microsoft Copilot covers the taskbar icon, the keyboard shortcut, and the registry option for people who want it gone completely. How to turn off Gemini covers the Android assistant switch and the Gmail smart-reply toggle.

What about Gmail, WhatsApp, and Zoom?

In Gmail, the smart-suggestion features live under Settings, then See all settings, then the General tab, under Google Workspace smart features. WhatsApp’s version sits under Settings, then Chats, then Suggestions & smart replies.

Zoom’s AI Companion, the one that writes meeting summaries, does not live inside the desktop app at all. You turn it off from the web portal at Zoom.com, under My Account, then Settings.

Turning off AI in Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat’s AI features, the panel that offers to summarize a PDF the moment you open it, live under Preferences. On Windows that’s Menu, then Preferences, then Generative AI. On a Mac it’s View, then Preferences, then Generative AI.

Why would someone want to turn AI off?

West puts it plainly on the guide itself: if you like AI and find it useful, the page is not for you. The reasons that show up most in the library sessions that prompted the guide are privacy, unwanted data use, and simple annoyance at a summary box appearing over text someone wanted to read normally.

Privacy. Some AI features process document or message content on a vendor’s servers, which some users would rather avoid for sensitive material.
Training data concerns. A few platforms have used interactions to improve their models unless a user opts out.
It just gets in the way. A summary box over the top of an email or PDF is unwanted friction for someone who already knows what they need to do.

What AI can’t do here

It cannot decide for you whether a given feature is worth keeping. That is a personal call about your own workflow and comfort with data use.
It cannot keep track of where a vendor moved a setting last month. That is exactly why a maintained guide, kept current by a person, beats a one-time screenshot.

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Common questions about turning off AI

Is NoToAI.org actually free?
Yes. No signup, no account, no payment. It is a reference page maintained by a librarian.

Does turning off AI features break anything?
No. Every toggle the guide covers is a preference setting. Turning one off removes a suggestion or summary panel. It does not affect the underlying app.

Can I turn off AI for just one app instead of everywhere?
Yes. Each platform has its own setting, and they are independent of each other. Turning off Gemini in Gmail does not affect Copilot in Windows.

Will these settings come back on after an update?
Sometimes. Vendors occasionally reset preferences or move a toggle to a new menu after a major update.

Where do I find the Windows and Android walkthroughs specifically?
See our dedicated guides: how to turn off Copilot and how to turn off Gemini.

Sources

Jessamyn West, librarian.net, the NoToAI guide (primary source, updated 17 August 2026)
NoToAI.org (short URL)

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