Stop AI: 14 Steps to turn off AI (againstdata.com)

Ainews247’s roundup distills a hands‑on guide — “14 Steps to Turn Off AI” — that walks users through pruning AI features, tightening privacy settings, and sending data‑deletion requests across major platforms. It covers generic steps (disable recommendations, ad personalization, voice assistants; use GDPR deletion rights) and platform‑specific opt‑outs for Google/YouTube, Microsoft (Copilot), Apple, Meta, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Slack, Figma, WordPress, Tumblr, Squarespace (blocking crawlers such as GPTBot, ChatGPT‑User, PerplexityBot) and niche services like DeviantArt and Clearview AI (the latter reportedly matches faces against ~20 billion images). The piece also highlights third‑party tooling — notably AgainstData — that automates bulk deletion and unsubscribe requests to reduce the manual burden. For the AI/ML community this matters because widespread opt‑outs change the available training signal and expose practical limits of “consent” models: opting out often stops training use but doesn’t erase retained data, and account deletion is sometimes the only full remedy. Technical implications include shifts in dataset provenance, potential sampling biases as privacy‑sensitive users opt out, and increased pressure on platforms to provide clearer controls and auditing. The guide underscores that individual measures can mitigate privacy risks, but systemic solutions — regulation, transparent data‑use policies, and consent mechanisms — are required for robust, scalable privacy protection.