A librarian's most popular class teaches people how to turn AI off
Bangor Public Library's Hannah Cyrus built a class explaining what generative AI actually does and how to disable it. It sold out twice, and 20 other librarians want to teach it too.
A library class on turning AI off drew 70 people the first time it ran. It is not the only one.
The most popular class Hannah Cyrus teaches at the Bangor Public Library is not about how to use a new piece of technology. It is about how to turn one off. Avoiding AI explains what generative AI actually does, why that is not the same as giving you information, and how to disable it on the devices patrons already own. More than 70 people showed up the first time she ran it.
What the class actually teaches
Avoiding AI walks through what generative AI is and where people are most likely to run into it without asking for it: an AI assistant like Siri, smart features quietly added to email, AI-generated summaries sitting on top of a search result. Cyrus shows patrons how to turn each of those off, and how to switch from Google Search to privacy-focused alternatives. None of it requires technical background. It is the same kind of practical, one-on-one tech help libraries have always offered, aimed at a newer set of defaults.
The pitch is not anti-technology
Cyrus is careful about what she is actually arguing. Her objection is not to technology in general, it is to trusting generative AI as a source of information by default. "These are products created by giant corporations who want your information and want your attention," she says. Generative AI, in her framing, generates words, not information: it pulls from a wide range of sources without discriminating between what is authoritative and what is not, and hands back something that reads as confident regardless of whether it is accurate.
This is bigger than one library
Avoiding AI is not a one-off. Cyrus first taught it in fall 2025 to more than 70 people. When she ran it again in spring 2026, 20 other Maine librarians enrolled, essentially training the trainers so the class can spread to more towns. At Searsmont Town Library, director Steven Brown now offers AI removal as a standing service, helping patrons strip AI features off their own devices, which he frames as a natural extension of the tech support librarians already do. A peer-reviewed piece in Information Technology and Libraries, titled "Refusal as Instruction: Equipping Patrons to Resist AI, Data Brokers, Big Tech, and More," places this inside a wider movement, not a local trend.
Why a build studio cares
We build with AI agents constantly, and this story is a useful check on that habit. A meaningful number of people do not want more AI folded into the products they use by default, they want to understand what a tool is doing with their information and have a real way to say no. That is a design question as much as a policy one: opt-out paths that actually work, clear language about what is AI-generated and what is not, and defaults that do not assume enthusiasm nobody asked for.
Next step: read the original Bangor Daily News piece for the full story, and the Information Technology and Libraries article for the professional movement behind it. If you want a product that treats an AI opt-out as a real feature and not an afterthought, write to us at hello@gattyworks.com.