Can We Turn Off AI Tools From Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Meta? Sometimes... (seattletimes.com)
- Reference: 0175291303
- News link: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/24/10/20/2023223/can-we-turn-off-ai-tools-from-google-microsoft-apple-and-meta-sometimes
- Source link: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/technology/how-to-say-no-to-our-ai-overlords/
> The companies rely on user activity to train and improve their AI systems, so they are testing this tech inside products we use every day. Typing a question such as "Is Jay-Z left-handed?" in Google will produce an AI-generated summary of the answer on top of the search results. And whenever you use the search tool inside Instagram, you may now be interacting with Meta's chatbot, Meta AI. In addition, when Apple's suite of AI tools, Apple Intelligence, arrives on iPhones and other Apple products through software updates this month, the tech will appear inside the buttons we use to edit text and photos.
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> The proliferation of AI in consumer technology has significant implications for our data privacy, because companies are interested in stitching together and analyzing our digital activities, including details inside our photos, messages and web searches, to improve AI systems. For users, the tools can simply be an annoyance when they don't work well. "There's a genuine distrust in this stuff, but other than that, it's a design problem," said Thorin Klosowski, a privacy and security analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights nonprofit, and a former editor at Wirecutter, the reviews site owned by The New York Times. "It's just ugly and in the way."
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> It helps to know how to opt out. After I contacted Microsoft, Meta, Apple and Google, they offered steps to turn off their AI tools or data collection, where possible. I'll walk you through the steps.
The article suggests logged-in Google users can toggle settings at [3] myactivity.google.com . (Some browsers also have extensions that force Google's search results to stop inserting an AI summary at the top.) And you can also tell Edge to remove Copilot from its sidebar at edge://settings .
But "There is no way for users to turn off Meta AI, Meta said. Only in regions with stronger data protection laws, including the EU and Britain, can people deny Meta access to their personal information to build and train Meta's AI."
> On Instagram, for instance, people living in those places can click on "settings," then "about" and "privacy policy," which will lead to opt-out instructions. Everyone else, including users in the United States, can visit the [4]Help Center on Facebook to ask Meta only to delete data used by third parties to develop its AI.
By comparison, when Apple releases new AI services this month, users will have to opt in, according to the article. "If you change your mind and no longer want to use Apple Intelligence, you can go back into the settings and toggle the Apple Intelligence switch off, which makes the tools go away."
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/09/technology/personaltech/turn-off-ai-overviews-google-meta.html
[2] https://www.seattletimes.com/business/technology/how-to-say-no-to-our-ai-overlords/
[3] https://myactivity.google.com/
[4] https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/1266025207620918
One answer from Varofakis - Technofeudalism. (Score:2)
Here's [1]a book called Technofeudalism [amazon.com] where Varofakis gives his answer. I get less and less convinced he's wrong.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Technofeudalism/dp/1847927270
Are they gathering your peronal data (Score:3)
to train their AIs? Then no, you can't turn it off.
Like it or not your data is going to be used to train an AI, largely for the purposes of replacing you at work.
You can't fix that with the free market. It's worth trillions . No amount of not using Microsoft Software is going to have an effect on that. You could try living in a cave, but pretty much all the land on earth that can support life is owned by someone and they'll kick you out. So you can't really do that either.
This gets fixed with collective action, or it doesn't get fixed at all. And if it doesn't get fixed it ends in Techno Feudalism.
&udm=14 (Score:3)
[1]This [udm14.org] works... for now. There are also plenty of Firefox addons to add &udm=14 to all your Google searches if you don't want to do it by hand.
"For now" because at some point Google will unilaterally decide to force you to eat AI against your will - just like they decided to [2]force their advertisement down your throat against your will [lifehacker.com] too. Because they can.
[1] https://udm14.org/
[2] https://lifehacker.com/tech/how-google-switch-to-manifestv3-affects-extensions
The GDPR demands "default off" ... (Score:2)
... for any data-collection, and training on user-input certainly qualifies. Well, Meta is already in deep shit with EU law and it seems to be getting worse. Google sort-of got the message, as did Microsoft (although they usually need a few kicks to the balls).
Re: (Score:2)
> as did Microsoft (although they usually need a few kicks to the balls).
Microsoft has balls?
A simple experiment (Score:2)
> Judging from the feedback I get from readers, lots of people outside the tech industry remain uninterested in AI — and are increasingly frustrated with how difficult it has become to ignore
Now, replace "AI" with "automobiles" and place the text in an imaginary newspaper 120 years ago.
Now, replace "automobiles" with "trains" and place the text in an imaginary newspaper 170 years ago.
We can play this game for a long time.
Re: (Score:2)
Bad analogy. Both automobiles and trains a) actually work, and b) are useful to do work (speaking in physics terms of "work").
AI is a mess of statistical manipulation that requires that we provide it our work and cannot do any actual work at all. It literally relies on us to think for it. It can't even become a mature, functional product without us using it. Which is why it's being forced down our throats.
You know what companies used to do? Pay us for our work. Now they just take our usual workflows, in the
What are we turning off? (Score:2)
The discussion is a bit confusing - what are people trying to turn off? Data collection or just the endless pointless AI features stuffed into primary real estate to make it more likely you'll interact with them? Especially in the US, I'd say "turning off data collection" is either impossible, temporary or illusory. But I sure would like a single checkbox in my operating systems to say "never show me AI features, hide them in the apps and websites".
currently in google search (Score:4, Informative)
Currently in google search you can add '-ai' and it will not display that garbage at the top of the results.