How to turn off AI in your Google Docs

Google Docs users can remove the Gemini AI interface from their documents through a series of settings adjustments, according to a recent walkthrough. The process involves disabling the bottom bar within Docs and toggling off broader smart features via Gmail settings. The first step targets the AI box directly inside a document. Users can click “Gemini” on the top menu bar, then select “bottom bar preferences” from the drop-down menu. Turning off the bottom bar removes the AI prompt from the screen [1]. For users who encounter other AI writing aids, such as a “help me write” feature that hovers near the cursor, a more comprehensive setting exists. The walkthrough notes that Benjamin Franklin’s adage, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” applies to preemptively disabling these tools [1]. To disable smart features across the broader Google Workspace suite, users must navigate to their Gmail inbox. Gmail is the largest email service worldwide, with 1.8 billion users [7]. From the inbox, clicking the gear icon for Settings and then “See all settings” reveals the necessary controls. Scrolling down the page leads to “Google Workspace smart features,” where clicking “Manage Workspace smart feature settings” presents the toggles [1]. Google Workspace, formerly branded as G Suite, is a collection of cloud-based productivity tools that includes Gmail, Drive, and the Google Docs Editors suite [8]. The smart features setting offers two distinct options: one that controls features within Google Workspace products like Docs, and another that governs other automated behaviors, such as Gmail automatically creating calendar events for flights [1]. The integration of generative AI across Google’s products has accelerated. Google Search, which holds a 90% share of the global search engine market, now uses generative artificial intelligence to respond to queries with non-search responses and prefixes many results with an “AI Overviews” section [2]. The company ceased performing its traditional April Fools’ Day jokes in 2020 and has not resumed them since [9].