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How to turn off AI in your Google Docs

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Why This Matters

This article highlights the importance of giving users control over AI features integrated into productivity tools like Google Docs. As AI becomes more embedded in everyday software, understanding how to disable or manage these features is crucial for user privacy, focus, and customization.

Key Takeaways

It happened to me: I opened a Google Doc to write an article, and I was immediately confronted with a text box inviting me to “write with Gemini.” I looked for some button to swipe away the garish AI display, but I could not find it. It made me mad.

Now, instead of writing the article I’m supposed to be working on, I am writing about how to get the AI pop-ups off of your Google Docs screen, since it took me some time to figure out. You’re welcome.

What is this monstrosity? Why won’t it just go away? Image Credits:Screenshot from Google Docs

The first fix is pretty straightforward:

Click “Gemini” on the top menu bar above your document.

On the drop-down menu, select “bottom bar preferences.”

You can choose to turn off that bottom bar, which will get rid of that AI box at the bottom of your screen.

Image Credits:Screenshot from Google Docs

Full disclosure: I was so enraged when I set out to find “bottom bar preferences” that I initially missed it entirely. Instead, I clicked “Ask something else” and asked Gemini to help me remove itself from my life. AI may not be human, but Gemini seemed to have some sort of survival instinct, because it told me to click the “X” icon. That does not remove Gemini. It simply closed the conversation, the one in which I was asking it how to turn itself off. Suspicious!

Image Credits:Screenshot from Google Docs

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