All aboard the AI train! Machine learning is being used in more and more industries, and it seems as though AI will be an unavoidable aspect of day-to-day life in the not too distant future. While AI can be incredibly helpful, there are lots of reasons why someone might prefer to pull away from AI features – whether due to current iterations’ lack of reliability and accuracy, personal preferences, creative concerns, or the ways in which AI can take and twist your data and private information.
If you’re an avid Google user, chances are you’ve already had encounters with the various Google AI features, from Google Assistant to AI overviews. Maybe you like them, maybe you don’t, but either way it’s good to have an understanding of exactly how they work and how to circumnavigate them, should you want to. In this guide we’ll explain a little more about how Google AI works and how to either turn it off, or work around it.
Turning Off Google AI Features in Google Assistant
Rolled out in 2016 as a feature on smartphones, Google Assistant lets users control their Google devices with voice commands. People can ask Google Assistant for basic information – such as the current weather — or request simple tasks, like setting a timer or reminder. But many people find the constant presence of a feature that is actively listening to you, waiting for your commands, to be invasive. Further still, people are starting to realize the many ways in which these virtual assistants can use our information against us.
Google Assistant makes use of AI in several ways: it enables voice recognition, pattern detection, and two-way conversations. Because Google Assistant is constantly waiting to hear its trigger words (“Hey Google,” or “okay Google”,) it picks up other information surrounding user preferences and habits. This information can then be saved and used to tailor ads and marketing, to better appeal to their captive audience.
Google Assistant is available on a range of devices. Here’s how to disable it for both Android smartphones and smart speakers.
Steps to disable Google Assistant on Android
Here are the steps to follow if you’re looking to disable Google Assistant on your Android smartphone:
- Open the Google app
- Click on your profile picture and select “Settings” on the drop-down menu
- Find the section for “Google Assistant”
- Within that section, select “All Settings”, and then “General Settings”
- Turn off Google Assistant by sliding the toggle into the off position
Managing AI in Google smart speakers
For smart speakers and smart displays, you’ll need to go into the Google Home app. From there, select the device for which you want to disable Google Assistant. Next:
- Enter “Settings”, and from there select “More settings”
- Navigate to Assistant, and disable it from there.
You can also disable activation triggers, such as the phrase “Hey Google,” by:
- Opening the Google app and going into “Settings” and then “Voice”
- Tap “Voice Match”
- And toggle off “Hey Google”
Disabling Google AI in Search and Chrome
AI significantly influences Google search results, ensuring that they align closely with user intent. Personalization is another key aspect: this is when AI tailors search results based on a user’s search history, location, and profile data, making the experience unique to them.
This can be incredibly helpful, but there are plenty of situations where a user might need a more generic search.
Disabling AI in Google search personalization
To disable AI-driven personalization in Google, you need to familiarize yourself with your Google Account Activity Controls.
Within these settings you can toggle off the tracking that allows Google to personalize your search results, including: Web & App Activity; Location History; and Ad Personalization. Making these changes means you can limit AI’s influence on your browsing experience, for more generic search results.
You might also want to remove Google’s AI overviews feature, which presents you with an AI summary of whatever you’re searching for. To do this:
- Open Google Chrome .
- Sign into your Google Account.
- Open a new tab .
- Click Labs, located at the top of the page, and then select Manage .
- Toggle off “AI Overviews and more.”
Turning off AI in Google Chrome’s autofill and suggestions
Autofill and suggestions can both be incredibly helpful, from automatically filling out forms to finishing your search sentences. But if you want to remove them, here’s how it’s done.
Within your Google Chrome settings, go to the Autofill section and toggle off the details you no-longer want filled, such as addresses or payment methods. Also within Settings, you can find the ‘Sync and Google services’ section, where you can toggle off autocomplete for searches and URLs. This prevents Chrome from providing AI-powered suggestions in the search bar.
How to Turn Off Google AI in Your Google Account
AI is used in several areas of your Google Account – one of the main places is in your email inbox. One of its strengths is in filtering spam and identifying potentially harmful emails. AI is fantastic at pattern recognition, making it able to pick out the common signs of suspicious spam. However, one of the areas in which you might not want AI flexing its muscles is when providing smart responses to your emails.
Managing AI in Gmail (smart compose and smart reply)
Smart compose and smart reply create AI-powered responses to your emails, providing a quick solution for the mundane messaging tasks that can clog up your inbox and your time. But, if you prefer a more personal approach to your correspondence you can easily turn them off.
- Go into the Settings section of your Gmail account
- Under the General tab, find Smart Compose
- Disable the writing suggestions feature
- Save your changes
- Do the same for Smart Reply
Take control of Your AI
There are so many ways in which AI can enhance our daily lives. But it’s important to remember that when we talk about working with AI, we don’t mean teaming up with a friendly-faced robot that will obey our every whim. In reality, AI has the potential to be everything from annoying to outright invasive, so it’s important to understand how to control the level of access it has to your devices and, by extension, your data.
If you’re conscious about your privacy, using antivirus software such as our System Mechanic Ultimate Defence can help to keep your devices safe and secure.
