![\"Charlie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/avoiding-ai.jpg\")
Charlie Bailey hosts an \u201cAvoiding AI\u201d workshopImage Credits:TechCrunch<\/p>\n\u201cEverybody\u2019s on their phone at my program!\u201d joked Charlie Bailey, a librarian in South Philadelphia. He\u2019s just asked his audience to pull out their phones so that he can walk them through the steps of disabling Apple Intelligence and Gemini.<\/p>\n
Bailey stands at the front of a library classroom that\u2019s outfitted for children \u2013 the focal point is the vibrant rug he\u2019s standing on, which reminds us that M is for \u201cmoon\u201d and Z is for \u201czebra.\u201d But the 20-odd adults in the room aren\u2019t here to learn about the alphabet. They\u2019re at a workshop called Avoiding AI, which, in this context does not stand for \u201capple\u201d and \u201cigloo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was inspired by the feeling of people\u2019s frustration with AI tools being kind of forced onto them, and feeling like AI tools we didn\u2019t ask for are suddenly everywhere in our lives,\u201d Bailey told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n
Bailey starts the hour-long workshop with an overview of how AI chatbots and other consumer AI tools work, explaining why people might want to use these products, and why they might opt to abstain. Then, he walks through all of the most popular tech platforms and devices, showing step-by-step instructions on the projector to guide people through turning off specific features.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a librarian, I think it\u2019s important to see this as advancing digital literacy and helping people reclaim their autonomy over whether they want to use AI tools,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cIt\u2019s important, especially when it can be so difficult not to use them, and when the design seems to force adoption.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charlie Bailey hosts an \u201cAvoiding AI\u201d workshopImage Credits:TechCrunch<\/p>\n
Bailey got the idea for the Avoiding AI workshop from Hannah Cyrus, a librarian in Maine. He was one of dozens of librarians from around the world who contacted Cyrus after she published a journal article<\/a> about developing her own workshop.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has never happened before with anything I\u2019ve worked on,\u201d Cyrus told TechCrunch. \u201cNobody has ever been emailing me like, \u2018Can you give me your Intro to Computers slides?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n At the Bangor Public Library, patrons turn to Cyrus when they need help with anything involving technology.<\/p>\n \u201cMore and more, I was getting questions about, \u2018How do I turn this [AI] stuff off? Why is it trying to write my emails for me? Why is it trying to summarize my one-sentence email that I can easily read?\u2019\u201d Cyrus said. \u201cI just decided that with so much media hype out there about AI products, it would be a good opportunity to teach people about the basics of what is happening when you\u2019re using this technology, and then getting into how to turn it off if you don\u2019t want to use it.\u201d<\/p>\n Usually, Cyrus\u2019 classes like Intro to Computers get about a dozen attendees. But so many people expressed interest in her first Avoiding AI workshop that she had to cut off registration at 30 people, open a waitlist, and share the workshop on Zoom. Including the livestream, about 70 people attended each of Cyrus\u2019 first two workshops.<\/p>\n When Bailey followed Cyrus\u2019 lead to host a workshop in Philadelphia, the reception was similarly unprecedented. The library\u2019s Instagram post<\/a> about the \u201cAvoiding AI\u201d event got over 2,000 likes and 220 shares, whereas most of the library\u2019s posts don\u2019t get more than a few dozen likes. He scheduled a second program because the first got too many registrations.<\/p>\n \u201cAs an information professional, it feels good to see people skeptical of AI,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cIt felt really good to see how many people share this feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s a sense of camaraderie among the room of strangers during the workshop. When Bailey invites attendees to share their own tips, one person explains that when you append \u201c&udm=14\u201d to a Google Search, it will hide AI results. Bailey writes the string of characters down on a whiteboard next to the log-in credentials for the teen Wi-Fi server.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to go through all the trouble to buy a home in today\u2019s world, and two years from now, there could be a data center next to your house,\u201d one workshop attendee named Johnny says.<\/p>\n \u201cI keep getting AI shoved down my throat at work, and every time I see it, I think about the environment,\u201d another attendee named Gabrielle adds. But she\u2019s also not writing off AI as a technology altogether. \u201cI\u2019m not against AI in terms of medical breakthroughs.\u201d<\/p>\n AI naysayers know that this technology is far broader than just chatbots and deepfake apps. Cyrus mentioned how useful optical character recognition is for scanning old documents at the library. But for her and the people who go to her workshops, the anti-AI movement isn\u2019t about rejecting technology altogether so much as it is about advocating for more control, agency, and freedom in how people use technology.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the forced adoption of AI on people\u2019s devices might be the straw that\u2019s breaking the camel\u2019s back in some ways,\u201d she said. \u201cThe awareness has been growing for a long time that these products and these companies that make them have an outsized influence over us, and that we\u2019re not really using these products in the way that we would like to.\u201d<\/p>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/p>\n