Artificial Intelligence is Showing Up Everywhere
Artificial intelligence (AI) personal assistants are showing up everywhere on our devices, including our mobile phones and devices, apps, and computers. Though most digital devices don’t give you much privacy to begin with they reduce your privacy and they make it very hard to disable or remove them. You’ll know if you use any of the following
- a Windows 11 computer
- WhatsApp, Instagram, or Facebook Messenger installed on your phone
- a good chunk of Google’s apps including, but not limited to, YouTube, Gmail, or Google Maps
You do have the choice of refusing it through
- trying to disable it
- different operating systems for your computer and mobile device
- using alternative apps that are free of AI personal assistants
The Necessity of Mobile Phones
It’s almost impossible to live in society without a smart phone or mobile device. While flip phones let you talk and text, some or many may be limited to doing just those tasks. Artificial intelligence (AI) is being introduced into our favourite apps on our smart phones without the ability to disable or remove it from the apps. Google, Microsoft, and Apple are all taking steps to introduce AI onto our phones and computers.
Meta AI
Meta’s AI is found in Meta’s app family including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. It does not allow you to turn off Meta’s AI feature.
Gemini AI
Google has its own AI assistant that is part of many of their apps, including
- YouTube
- Maps
- Gmail & Drive
- Calling
- Google Messages
What if You Don’t Want AI Apps on Your Devices?
If you’re looking to juke having AI assistants in the apps
- You can change the physical phone that you’re using to one that’s not manufactured by Google or Apple
- you can take steps to de-Google your phone
- you can install a different operating system, such as GrapheneOS or LineageOS, on your phone through custom ROMs
- you can use free open-source software (FOSS) or alternative apps that don’t have AI assistants
“Do everything in love.”
1st Corinthians 16:14 of the New International Version of the Holy Bible
How the CIA Bypasses Encryption of Your Favourite Apps
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has a hacking arsenal with more lines of code put together than the amount that is used by Facebook. Their malware targets iPhone, Android, and smart TVs. They use malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized “zero day” exploits, malware remote control systems and associated documentation to do client-side scanning to bypass the encryption of popular apps, such as WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Wiebo, Confide and Cloackman. This lets them hack the “smart” phones that they run on and collecting audio and message traffic before encryption is applied.
AI on Microsoft Windows Computers
AI is finding its way on personal computers. Microsoft Windows 11 recently added AI features suspected of being spyware that cannot be removed. Copilot has been an AI assistant on Windows 11. Microsoft Recall has been introduced to replace Cortana.
Microsoft Copilot
Windows 11 has had Microsoft Copilot as your personal AI assistant as a replacement to Cortana. It cannot be removed from Windows very easily. There is suspicion that Microsoft Copilot is spyware.
Microsoft Recall
Similar to how the CIA gathers data from your favourite apps before they’re encrypted, Microsoft also uses client-side scanning when you’re using Windows 11 to takes screenshots of your screen and then store it for three months. Microsoft reported that the screenshot feature only works with computers that have an AI chip only found on Copilot+ PCs. Recall also writes screenshot data of non-Copilot+ computers into a database saved as a plaintext file on the hard drive.
Is Using My Computer Without AI Still Possible?
With Microsoft mandating AI features on Windows 11 people have decided to
- accept the new AI features
- downgrade to older versions of Windows
- disable and or remove the AI features found on Windows 11
- switch the computer’s operating system
- avoid taking the unadvised and dangerous risk of debloating your Windows 11 through things like Tiny11, ReviOS, or AtlasOS
The Other Computer Operating Systems Free of AI and Spyware
For those that chose to switch their operating system there are many operating systems people can choose from. For many decades the next most popular operating system behind Windows has been and still is Apple’s MacOS. Linux is another family of operating systems that people have decided to switch to. It is not known for having AI features within it, except for distributions like Deepin OS.
What is Linux?
Linux is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel. The most popular operating systems or distributions are Debian and Ubuntu because they do what you need them to do. They are the most stable and supported by many applications and software. Fedora is another highly used Linux operating system or distribution. There are plenty of other distributions that can meet your specific needs.
What’s the Easiest Linux Distribution if You’ve Only Ever Used Windows?
You will be safe if you hook your computer up with the Linux Mint distribution. It’s got a lot going for it, such as
- being based on Ubuntu
- being the most stable and easiest distribution to use if you’re familiar with Windows
- using very little of your computer hardware’s resources
- offering a variety of desktop environments to change the look and feel of your computer
What’s a Desktop Environment?
A desktop environment lets you style the look of your computer however you want. You do this by choosing how you want your icons, toolbars, wallpapers, and desktop widgets to look like. Some common ones are
- GNOME
- KDE
- Cinammon
- XFCE
- and MATE
Which Desktop Environment Looks the Coolest?
If you say anything other than the KDE desktop environment then we got a problem. Here’s why:
- it’s light on your computer’s hardware resources, such as RAM
- it looks great
- you can customize it a lot
- it is available as a flavour for Linux’s most popular distributions, such as Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora
- it’s also available in many other distros
While you’re customizing your KDE desktop environment stay away from installing themes that didn’t come with your operating system or distribution unless you trust the theme’s creator. Unpleasant things have happened to people’s computers after installing some third-party themes for their distribution.
Not All Linux Operating Systems Are Free of AI
Most Linux distributions are not known to have AI except for Deepin OS. It’s the Linux distribution that looks almost identical to Windows 11 using its own Deepin Desktop Environment. Deepin OS’s AI integration has been toned down to the options of an AI coding assistant, and an image-editing plugin.
Thoughts?
Do you like AI on your phone? If so, why? If you don’t, what’s your reason? Leave your comment below and share the content!
