Tech companies are getting increasingly pushy with their large language models—prominent buttons for these AI features coat every surface designers can think of, including in three of the most prominent browsers: Chrome, Edge, and Firefox.
If you want these AI features to go away, and stay away, there’s a script for that. JustTheBrowser is a free and open source tool from developer and tech blogger Corbin Davenport that removes AI features, telemetry data reporting, sponsored content, product integrations, and other annoyances from Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. Basically, you can run this once and never think about these features again.
To get started, head to the JustTheBrowser homepage. There are scripts to copy (which I’m not going to include here in case they change in the future).
Credit: Justin Pot
Windows users will need to run PowerShell as an admin—the easiest way to do that is by right-clicking PowerShell in the start menu and clicking “Run as administrator.” There is a different script for Mac and Linux users—that one just needs to be copied into a regular Terminal.
Either way, you will be asked which browser you’d like to update the settings for—just hit the number corresponding to what you want to do.
Credit: Justin Pot
In my testing, the process was very simple on Windows—just click the number and the script will do its thing. On macOS, I needed to follow a few instructions to enable a configuration policy in the Settings app, something that only took a couple of clicks. After that, Chrome was free of any and all references to AI.
What do you think so far?
Credit: Justin Pot
A number of other features were also gone, including those annoying prompts to switch my default browser.
The way this works is kind of interesting: it uses features intended for large organizations. Basically all major browsers allow for group settings, which is how IT departments control what you can and can’t do with your browser. Among these settings are ones to disable AI features.
It’s an interesting workaround, and hopefully one that keeps working. There is always a chance that browser companies make it so even IT departments can’t disable AI features, at which point we’ll all need to find a new solution (or switch to an alternative browser).
