Librarians’ "Avoiding AI" workshops are drawing 70 people where a dozen used to show up

A 25 July 2026 report traced a fast-spreading public-library workshop format that teaches people how to turn AI features off: disabling Apple Intelligence and Google Gemini, appending "&udm=14" to Google searches to suppress AI results, and explaining how the tools work. Hannah Cyrus at Bangor Public Library in Maine ran the first two sessions to roughly 70 attendees each (about 30 in person plus 40 on livestream) against her usual dozen; Charlie Bailey's replication in South Philadelphia drew over 2,000 Instagram likes and enough registrations to force a second session. Dozens of librarians worldwide have since asked Cyrus for her materials. Attendees cite forced adoption, environmental impact and lack of control.

What it means Opt-out demand is a training-design signal, not only a backlash story — the people turning up are asking for control and for an explanation of how the thing works, which is exactly what a good AI-literacy curriculum owes them.