Have you noticed how desperate tech companies are to get you to use their artificial intelligence features, even if you don’t want to use them? They’re adding buttons to user interfaces and using pop-up tool tips to implore you to click them and become a dedicated user of their AI creations.
Google Docs, for example, is rolling out a giant Gemini bar at the bottom of the screen for some users. I first noticed this feature back in April, when it showed up in the Google Docs account I use to collaborate with editors. Apparently I was part of the pool of users chosen to test the feature. I know people who have never seen this box, and I’ve seen reports of it showing up for people in the last few weeks. So it varies.
If you’re one of the users who sees this feature and you don’t want it on your screen, good news: The giant bar is easy enough to hide.
Click Gemini in the menu bar, then hover over Bottom bar preferences and select Turn off.
Courtesy of Justin Pot
Do that and the bar is gone. It can’t hurt you anymore.
But if you’d like to banish AI features from Google Docs entirely, you can keep going. There are a couple ways to stop things like the Gemini menu from showing up in Google Docs. The first, which is working for some people but not others, is to change a setting in Gmail. The second, which seems to be working for everyone, is to install a Chrome extension.
First, a caveat: The process is a little different for personal Google accounts (basically, any account with an @gmail.com email address) and company accounts that use Google Workspace (basically, any account managed by your employer with an email address of your company’s domain). For company-issued Workspace accounts, it’s up to the administrator to decide which AI features you do and don’t see.
So if you use Google Workspace at your job, only the IT team can turn off the AI features. There’s not much you can do on your own, but you could try giving your IT worker a plate of cookies as encouragement.
Personal users have a bit more control, but the path forward is obscure: The option you need to toggle is in Gmail. Yep.