🦆 Duck off: Tell that to your AI chatbot collecting data. Duck.ai is out of beta and lets you chat anonymously, for free, with no account required. You can use GPT-4o mini, o3-mini, Meta Llama 3.3, Mistral Small 3 and Claude 3 Haiku without worrying about your data being collected. Chats are fully anonymized, meaning they’ll never be used for AI training. Try it out.
Tech how-to: Turn off built-in AI on your computer and phone
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Ever feel like your apps are trying a little too hard to be helpful? Maybe they’re suggesting cringy replies, summarizing things you actually wanted to read, or just getting way too pushy.
Let’s dive into how to turn off those AI features that just aren’t working for you.
Start in the settings
Look for the settings cog (that little gear icon) or tap your profile picture to open your options. Once inside, check sections labeled AI, smart features, suggestions, privacy or automation.
Keep an eye out for toggles and checkboxes that let you switch features on or off. You want to find AI add-ons like summaries, smart replies, recommendations and predictive text that tries to finish your sentences for you.
✅ Be a Privacy Komando: While you’re in settings, take a peek at the privacy section for anything related to data collection or personalization. Your data is what powers AI, so if you’re not using AI, turn it off.
No-more-AI cheat sheet
Here are the most common steps. Because there are so many makes, models and operating systems out there, your steps might be a little different.
On a Windows PC: Go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar. From here, you can turn off Copilot.
On a Mac running macOS 15 or later: Click the Apple menu > System Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > toggle Apple Intelligence off. Note: Apple Intelligence isn’t available on all Macs yet.
On an iPhone: Apple Intelligence is on by default with compatible models. To change that, open Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > toggle Apple Intelligence off. Note: Apple Intelligence isn’t available on all Macs yet.
On an Android: Choose between Gemini (Google’s AI) and the old Google Assistant. Go to Settings > Apps > Assistant > Digital assistants from Google.
Bots are talking to each other
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Stop me if you’ve heard this one. One AI bot calls up another, and they chat back and forth in English. Once they realize they’re both AI, they switch to a secret-to-them language totally undecipherable to human ears.
Up to $65 an hour
Wage for remote AI trainers. Can you code, research and write? Fact-checking AI data might be up your alley. Perfect for introverts, even if the repetitive tasks are “mind-numbing.” Links here if you want an AI gig.
🌙 Need a bedtime story for the kids? It’s tough to get creative at 8 p.m. when your brain’s fried from a long day. No worries, just use a chatbot to tell the tale. I like to include the child’s age, interests and a theme. For example: “Can you make up a bedtime story for a 5-year-old boy about a brave knight?” Voilà, no stress to impress.
Impress your boss: Download NetSuite’s free knowledge e-book, “The CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning.” No matter what you do, you should know more about AI.
AI upgrade: Hit this link to try Google’s new Gemini 2.5 free. All you need is a Google account. What’s different? Version 2.5 “thinks” before it replies for higher-quality answers, and it beats the other big AI bots in math and science.
🗣️ Speak up, please: If you haven’t tried this yet, it’s slick. Otter’s AI bot already takes notes and summarizes meetings. Now, its Meeting Agent answers questions, drafts emails and schedules future meetings. Score. Use it on Zoom for free; coming soon to Teams and Google Meet.
Impress your boss: Download NetSuite’s free knowledge e-book, “The CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning.” No matter what you do, you should know more about AI. It’s not going anywhere.
🧑🏼🎨 New AI image generator: Using ChatGPT’s 4o model, just type something like, “Draw a dog surfing a wave with sunglasses,” and boom, you’ve got an image in seconds. It’s rolling out to both free and paid users, so if you don’t see it yet, hang tight.
When your brain is overloaded: Your favorite chatbot can help you think of fresh ideas if you’re stuck or short on time. Just ask, “Give me 10 blog titles about [topic] for a small business site.” ICYMI, here are more prompts to try.
Feeling left behind? Download NetSuite’s free knowledge drop, “The CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning.” No matter what you do, you should know more about AI. It’s not going anywhere.
Swinging into AI: Intel released AI Playground, a free tool to make images, upscale photos and answer questions with a chatbot. The catch? It only works on Intel’s latest Core Ultra processors. Check it out here.
Use Google Docs at work? You may have the Gemini AI bot to help write. Hover over the star icon next to your pic that says Ask Gemini. Click on it to open a sidebar with the writing tools. Choose options like Refine or Rephrase this document, or type in your ideas at the bottom.
Get the $200/month ChatGPT subscription for free: Just for my Windows friends. Open the Copilot app on Windows or go to copilot.microsoft.com and sign in with your Microsoft account. Make sure Think Deeper is toggled on to use OpenAI’s fancy-schmancy new o1 model. It “thinks” for about 30 seconds before spitting out an answer.
Deep dive: OpenAI’s Deep research is ready to go for Plus, Team, Enterprise and Edu subscribers. You’ll get 10 deep research queries per month that pulled detailed info from multiple sources. Try it: Select Deep research in the Composer.