Librarians are hosting viral ‘Avoiding AI’ workshops for people who are fed up with Big Tech

The unexpected viral success of 'Avoiding AI' workshops, spearheaded by librarians like Hannah Cyrus and Charlie Bailey, signals a significant shift in public sentiment towards artificial intelligence. What began as a local initiative to address specific user queries about disabling AI features has rapidly evolved into a widespread movement, demonstrating a collective desire among consumers to exert more control over their digital lives. The sheer volume of interest, from overflowing in-person sessions to thousands of social media engagements, suggests that many individuals feel overwhelmed and disempowered by the rapid, often mandatory, integration of AI into their devices and online services. This phenomenon challenges the tech industry's narrative of AI as an unequivocally beneficial and universally desired advancement, revealing a substantial segment of the population that views it with skepticism and a longing for choice.

The Unprecedented Demand for Digital Autonomy

Librarians, traditionally stewards of information and digital literacy, have found themselves at the forefront of a new kind of tech education. Hannah Cyrus's initial workshop in Maine, which quickly garnered a waitlist and a Zoom livestream attracting dozens, and Charlie Bailey's similarly popular sessions in Philadelphia, underscore an unmet need for practical guidance on managing AI. Unlike typical tech classes, these workshops are not about embracing new tools but about understanding and, if desired, opting out of them. This focus on 'avoiding' rather than 'adopting' AI reflects a deeper frustration with what many perceive as the forced integration of AI features, such as email summarizers or predictive text, that users did not explicitly request or desire. The workshops empower individuals by providing step-by-step instructions to disable these features, transforming a sense of helplessness into actionable control.

Challenging the Narrative of Pervasive AI

The motivations behind attending these workshops are varied but coalesce around a desire for agency. Attendees express concerns ranging from environmental impact to privacy implications and simply the annoyance of unwanted automation. The workshops provide a space for shared skepticism and practical solutions, fostering a sense of community among those who feel 'AI shoved down my throat.' This collective pushback is not a wholesale rejection of all AI — as one attendee noted, medical AI breakthroughs are still valued — but rather a targeted resistance to the uncritical and often opaque deployment of consumer-facing AI. It highlights a growing awareness that while AI offers potential benefits, its implementation often comes at the cost of user choice and data privacy, prompting a reevaluation of the power dynamics between tech companies and their users.

Implications for Tech and Digital Literacy

The viral spread of these workshops carries significant implications for both the tech industry and the future of digital literacy. For tech companies, the overwhelming response serves as a clear signal that a 'build it and they will come' approach to AI integration may no longer suffice. Ignoring user sentiment and the desire for opt-out options risks alienating a substantial portion of their user base. For librarians, this movement reaffirms their crucial role in advancing digital literacy, not just by teaching how to use technology, but also how to critically engage with it, understand its implications, and exercise personal autonomy. It underscores that true digital literacy in the AI age involves not just proficiency, but also the ability to discern, question, and control the technological forces shaping our lives, advocating for a more human-centric approach to technology design and deployment.