Libraries Are Teaching People How to Avoid AI — and the Demand Is Striking

Introduction

As major technology companies race to weave AI assistants into phones, search engines, email clients, and office software, a very different kind of class is gaining traction in public libraries: how not to use AI.

According to TechCrunch, librarians in multiple U.S. communities are hosting “Avoiding AI” workshops. These sessions do not focus on prompt engineering or productivity hacks. Instead, they explain how AI features show up in consumer products and walk attendees through the steps required to disable tools such as Apple Intelligence and Gemini.

Key points

• The demand is driven by a feeling of forced adoption. South Philadelphia librarian Charlie Bailey said the workshop was inspired by people’s frustration that AI tools they did not ask for are suddenly embedded across their digital lives.
• Libraries are treating this as digital literacy. Bailey begins with a basic overview of how chatbots and consumer AI systems work, why people might use them, and why others may choose not to. He then shows practical steps for turning off specific features on popular platforms and devices.
• Interest has outpaced normal computer classes. Maine librarian Hannah Cyrus helped inspire similar workshops after publishing an article about her own program. She said she had never received this kind of outreach from other librarians for typical technology classes. Her “Avoiding AI” sessions drew far more interest than her usual introductory computer courses.
• Skepticism is not the same as rejecting all AI. Attendees raised concerns about AI in the workplace, environmental costs, data centers, search results, and automated email assistance. At the same time, some acknowledged that AI may be valuable in areas such as medical breakthroughs.

Why it matters

The popularity of these workshops exposes a central tension in the current AI rollout. Big Tech is optimizing for default integration and rapid adoption. Many users, however, are asking for consent, visibility, and the ability to opt out.

Digital literacy used to mean learning how to use email, browse the web, protect passwords, or identify scams. Now it increasingly includes understanding when a tool is generating, summarizing, ranking, or rewriting information on your behalf — and knowing how to turn that layer off.

For AI companies and platform owners, the message is clear: users may not be anti-AI, but they are wary of losing control. If AI features are made default while opt-out settings are hard to find, resistance may grow rather than fade.

For libraries, the trend reinforces their role as civic technology institutions. They are not simply helping people access information; they are helping people understand the power dynamics built into digital systems. “Avoiding AI” is not really about rejecting technology. It is about defending a basic principle: useful technology should be chosen, not imposed.

Source: TechCrunch AI