On a June monday evening, the loudest sound in the South Philadelphia Library was the clicking of computer keyboards. Behind the busy island of computers, another group of people filtered into a classroom filled with green plastic chairs and soft ambient music: a space of quiet resistance.
“I’m tired of AI being shoved down my throat,” one woman said, puncturing the stillness.
She’d come to the right place: a workshop called “How to Not Use AI” led by librarian Charlie Bailey.
The Free Library of Philadelphia hosts hundreds of free workshops each year, many of which focus on digital literacy. Until now, those workshops have taught participants how to use programs such as Microsoft Excel and Quickbooks. Bailey’s workshops are the first to teach people how not to use technology. This may sound counterintuitive, but Bailey believes that showing people how to disable artificial intelligence features from common apps and websites aligns with the library’s mission of advancing digital literacy.
“We’re constantly helping people navigate technology,” he says, “I see this as part of that in that it’s helping people reclaim their autonomy over the technology they use and decide if they want to use certain tools.”
Bailey got the idea for his workshop after reading a paper published by a Maine librarian named Hannah Cyrus, who leads workshops teaching people how to disable AI features. He’d heard library patrons complain about AI features popping up in their Google searches and figured there might be a need for something similar in Philadelphia. After reaching out to Cyrus for guidance, he announced his first “How to Not Use AI” workshop on the library’s website.
All 50 slots filled up immediately. Bailey added another session in July and recruited Alison Macrina, executive director of the Library Freedom Project, to run a three-part series on critical AI literacy with him at the library this fall.
Ray Craig, who attended Bailey’s first workshop, says he signed up because he was concerned about the harm AI inflicts on workers and the environment. “Everything is becoming more expensive because of data centers, because they’re draining the grid,” he says.
Caitlin Shanley, a librarian at Temple University, attended the workshop so that she could support students looking to avoid AI. “A lot of students are very concerned about some of the issues that Charlie mentioned today,” she says. “I want to be able to better support them to opt out wherever they can.”
Bailey also wants library patrons to be aware that AI tools share information from unverified sources. “A lot of problems with AI overviews and search engines and chatbots is that false information can be regurgitated by them in a way that sounds authoritative,” he says.
Bailey began working as a librarian in December 2025, after spending two years as a library trainee while he completed his degree in library science. This was his first workshop on avoiding AI, but many of the other programs he runs at the library, including gardening workshops and a “crafting and listening club” for teens, seem designed for people who’d like to live more of their lives off-screen.
Bailey believes that AI “has the potential to be pretty disastrous for the world,” but he sees hope for the future in the teens enrolled in his after-school program, who he says have been encouraging each other to get off their phones.
“They’re really aware of the fact that a lot of this stuff is designed to make them addicted to it, “ he says. “They have a healthy skepticism of AI that I find really exciting and enheartening.”
Great article! So refreshing to see young people rebelling against A.I.