Librarians Launch 'Avoiding AI' Workshops as Consumer Backlash Against Forced Integration Grows

Consumer frustration with involuntary AI integration is manifesting in an unexpected venue: public libraries. According to TechCrunch, librarians across the United States are hosting “Avoiding AI” workshops that teach patrons how to disable artificial-intelligence features on consumer devices and platforms, responding to demand that has far outpaced typical library instruction attendance.

The Grassroots Origin

The movement began with Hannah Cyrus, a librarian at Bangor Public Library in Maine, who published a journal article documenting her own workshop curriculum after fielding repeated patron questions about disabling AI features. Cyrus told TechCrunch that the response was unprecedented: “This has never happened before with anything I’ve worked on. Nobody has ever been emailing me like, ‘Can you give me your Intro to Computers slides?’”

Her first two “Avoiding AI” workshops drew approximately 70 attendees each via in-person and livestream attendance—roughly six times the typical attendance of Cyrus’ other library technology courses. Demand was so high she capped registration at 30 and opened a waitlist, a constraint that rarely occurs at library-based digital-literacy instruction.

Rapid Expansion and Scaling Demand

Charlie Bailey, a librarian in South Philadelphia, adapted Cyrus’ model and launched his own workshop after learning of her work. According to TechCrunch, Bailey frames the instruction as digital literacy and consumer autonomy rather than anti-technology activism. “As a librarian, I think it’s important to see this as advancing digital literacy and helping people reclaim their autonomy over whether they want to use AI tools,” Bailey explained, noting that platform design often makes non-adoption difficult.

Bailey’s workshop structure mirrors Cyrus’ approach: an hour-long session that begins with foundational education on how AI chatbots function, explains use cases and risks, then provides step-by-step instructions for disabling Apple Intelligence, Google Gemini, and other AI-integrated features across major platforms and devices. The Philadelphia session drew a full room of approximately 20 adults, again exceeding typical attendance benchmarks.

According to TechCrunch, dozens of librarians from around the world have contacted Cyrus requesting workshop materials and guidance, suggesting this is no longer a localized phenomenon but an emerging pattern in public-library programming.

Why This Matters

This grassroots movement reflects a structural misalignment between how technology companies design AI adoption—defaulting features to “on” and burying disabling instructions—and what consumers actually want. Libraries, as trusted neutral institutions without commercial incentives, are filling an information gap that neither tech support teams nor official documentation adequately address.

The viral adoption of these workshops signals that consumer frustration with forced AI integration is broad and motivation is high enough to drive in-person attendance to library classes. For technology companies and policymakers, the data suggests that opaque defaults and difficult-to-find disable switches are creating demand for third-party intermediaries to explain basic consumer control—a dynamic that usually precedes regulatory scrutiny or user-interface redesign.