The backlash to AI just found an unlikely headquarters: the public library. According to TechCrunch AI, librarians across the U.S. and beyond are running packed workshops called “Avoiding AI,” where they walk regular people through turning off features like Apple Intelligence and Gemini one setting at a time. What started as one librarian’s side project is now spreading fast, and the demand behind it says something important about where consumer AI is heading.
Here’s the scene TechCrunch AI describes. Charlie Bailey, a librarian in South Philadelphia, stands on a kids’ alphabet rug in front of 20-odd adults, projecting step-by-step instructions for disabling AI features on popular apps and devices. He got the idea from Hannah Cyrus, a librarian in Maine, whose first workshop blew past her usual dozen attendees. She capped registration at 30, opened a waitlist, and streamed it on Zoom. Around 70 people showed up. Bailey’s library Instagram post about his event pulled over 2,000 likes when most of their posts get a few dozen.
What’s actually driving this
This isn’t people rejecting technology. It’s people rejecting a lack of choice.
Cyrus told TechCrunch AI that patrons kept asking her the same thing: “How do I turn this stuff off? Why is it trying to write my emails for me?” Her take is sharp. “The forced adoption of AI on people’s devices might be the straw that’s breaking the camel’s back,” she said. Bailey frames it as digital literacy, helping people “reclaim their autonomy over whether they want to use AI tools.”
What stands out is the nuance in the room. One attendee said she’s fine with AI for medical breakthroughs but tired of it getting shoved into her work tools. Another worried about data centers and energy use. These aren’t Luddites. They’re consumers who feel opted-in without being asked.
Why it matters now
Every major platform is racing to bake AI into default settings. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta. The bet is that once a feature is on by default, adoption numbers climb and stick. This story is the counter-signal: a visible, organized, in-person movement teaching people the off switch.
That’s a reputational risk the AI industry hasn’t priced in. When your growth strategy depends on defaults and a community response forms specifically to undo those defaults, you’ve created friction with your own users. Regulators watching “dark patterns” and consent will notice too.
The Future Cast: where this goes
Over the next one to three years, expect three shifts:
- Off switches become a selling point. Companies that make AI genuinely optional, with clear controls, will use it as a trust differentiator against rivals who bury the settings.
- “AI-free” turns into a market segment. Just as “organic” and “ad-free” became labels people pay for, expect products and modes that promise no AI by default.
- Digital literacy goes mainstream. Libraries, schools, and workplaces will treat “how to control AI” as a basic skill, the way they once taught email and spreadsheets.
Practical takeaways
If you build or sell AI products:
- Make consent obvious. Forced defaults win short-term metrics and lose long-term trust. Give people a clean, findable off switch and say so out loud.
- Watch your reviews and social mentions for “how do I turn this off.” That question is a churn warning, not a support ticket.
- Segment your users. Some want full automation. Some want AI only for specific jobs. Build for both instead of assuming everyone wants it everywhere.
If you’re a business rolling out AI internally, the workshop attendees told you exactly what breaks trust: tools that summarize a one-sentence email nobody asked to have summarized. Deploy AI where it solves a real problem, not everywhere at once.
The camaraderie in those library rooms is the real headline. People thought they were alone in their AI fatigue, and they’re finding out they’re not. That shared feeling is how movements start. The companies paying attention now will be the ones people still trust in three years. Full reporting is available at TechCrunch AI.