I'm not proud of this, but a few months ago, I was addicted to AI.
I was using it for pretty much everything. From searching for things to planning every detail of my life. Besides some local or "private" AI models, I even used the Big Tech AI. Gemini, ChatGPT, you name it! I've probably trained them a lot. Besides the privacy element here, let's look at me for a second. I caught myself not being to think without AI quite a few times. My critical thinking and creativity went to zero. For the latter, my 9-5 job contributes a lot, but that's another discussion.
So I decided to change things around. I tried AI-detox for a week. And it worked! No AI whatsoever. I blocked it from my phone, my personal laptop, everywhere. Well, apart from my work laptop. This is Microsoft-powered, so lots of CoPilot crap is heavily integrated into it. The "perks" of having to pay the bills every month, I guess.
But let's go to the details of how I did it.
Phone
I have a Google Pixel 9 Pro and I formatted the default OS and installed GrapheneOS. The guide can be found here https://grapheneos.org/install/ and it's super easy to install and configure. Their forum is also very helpful with any shenanigans you might encounter. No AI can now be found on my phone, either built-in or installed by me.
Browsers
I rejected the idea of having to use a web browser with AI and then having to manually block everything AI-related. So I found one, which is not based on Chromium and non-AI by default. Ladies n' gents, Waterfox! Simple. Minimalistic. A fork of Firefox. And non of the AI bs. Jolly good. I now have it on my phone and personal laptop. Again, with the exception of my work laptop, as the IT allows me only to install Firefox as the alternative to Edge and Chrome. You know -
The "perks" of having to pay the bills every month, I guess.
But I blocked all the AI and hardened it to its very core. Arkenfox, looking at you here and thanking you.
Laptops
Let's again forget the work laptop, for reasons aforementioned above. Fedora Linux has been powering my personal laptop for years now (with lots of distrohopping in between) so no AI has touched the inner "wirings" of my laptop.
Apps
No AI apps on my phone or using any on my desktop. No AI-powered mainstream social media. Only Fediverse. Exceptions at the moment (work in progress) are watching Youtube every now n then and Google Maps. I believe both have some AI elements into them. Actually, these are also the only two Google apps I've still kept in my daily life.
There you are, I did it. It's been weeks now, since I cut (most of the) AI from my life. And I feel cleansed and lighter. Like I feel after my morning poop. Cheers everyone.