Eliminating AI from my writing workflow

As a writer, I want nothing to do with AI. As a balding bloke who worked in tech for thirty-five years, I'm pretty clued-in as to how AI works and in how to eliminate it from all my writing tools. But it's been a journey, and it continues.

I don't use AI in any part of my writing: not in brainstorming or idea generation, not in research, not in the actual word-smithing, and not in editing. The reason is that I wish to be the sole author of my work. If I were to use AI in any of these tasks then I would effectively have a co-author. My objection to other writers using AI has nothing to do with their choice and everything to do with their deception when they deny it. If a writer uses AI for any of these tasks, then I believe they should simply acknowledge the fact. Not to do so is fraudulent behaviour, equivalent to using banned performance-enhancement drugs in athletics.

Tech companies are pushing AI tools on to us whether we want them or not. That's not surprising: they've invested billions of dollars in this technology and are desperate to generate revenue from it. So AI keeps cropping up in our software tools, and getting rid of it is like a game of whack-a-mole. 

Here are the whack-a-mole moves I've gone through in the software I use.

Step 1: Turn AI off

There's a toggle switch in Microsoft Office to turn off Copilot. Turn it off in any Office product (e.g. Word) and it's also turned off in all others (Outlook, Excel, etc.) However, be warned that I've observed it turn itself back on after a software update - a bug, apparently.

However there's no global off-switch in most other products (Google Drive, Search etc.). And AI is increasingly embedded in the operating systems Windows and MacOS.

Step 2: Replace the browser and search engine

AI is now an intrinsic part of Google search and browsers like Chrome and Edge. The only way to avoid it when researching is not to use these products. Happily that's quite straightforward and I use the following:

Vivaldi, as my web browser

Startpage.com as my search engine (and as my default search in Vivaldi)

Step 3: Save my writing faraway from prying AI eyes

I love the convenience of Microsoft's OneDrive, but I don't trust it anymore. Microsoft is all-in on AI, so how can I be sure - despite its denials - that it's not using my writing on OneDrive to train Copilot? Also, as a US company it must have backdoor access to all OneDrive files to facilitate the US government's demands and that creates a huge security risk of an AI-assisted hack

So I've moved all my writing off OneDrive to Sync.com, a Canadian online storage provider who guarantees zero access of any files there by anyone but me. Sync works just as seamlessly as OneDrive. 

(As a Canadian, having my data secured in Canada and not in the US is a big advantage of Sync. There are European solutions too, of course.)

Step 4: Stop using Word

I've used Word for three decades now (WordPerfect was my first love). There are lots of other word processors that are just as good, some better, but the tight integration with OneDrive was perfect for my writing workflow. But now that I've left OneDrive there's no reason not to leave Word and its damn Copilot AI.

I now use the LibreOffice suite. It's free, built by good folks around the world, and moving to it was painless. If you're familiar with Word you can use LibreOffice Writer immediately. It can read and write in Word's file format too, so no problem for submitting writing to publications who require that.

Step 5: Leave Windows

Windows has been getting more bloated and clunky over the years. I've dabbled with Linux before (Ubuntu on desktop) and was impressed, but I was tied to MS Office. No more. I've used MacOS in the past too (on a MacBook Pro) and was pretty happy with it, but Apple and Microsoft are both integrating AI right into the OS. So Linux is on my agenda again as it's easy to install an AI-free version.

I haven't taken this step yet as I'm still verifying that LibreOffice and Sync will meet all my needs (they both support Linux). But I'm pretty sure that's where I'll be by the end of 2026. I'll post an update on Step 5 then.