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Good morning. Unlike Lil Wayne, the heat is most assuredly showing up today. Record highs are likely from the coast to Bangor to Fort Kent. So grab a cold drink, jump in the pool, or hunker down next to the AC.

These Maine librarians are helping patrons resist AI and Big Tech

Hannah Cyrus, digital media librarian at the Bangor Public Library, teaches patrons how to opt out of AI. Credit: Courtesy of Hannah Cyrus

If you’ve ever felt like you can’t escape the overeager helping hands of artificial intelligence, your local librarian might be able to help. Several have begun helping patrons remove AI assistants from their devices, turn off relentless text suggestions and understand that, as Bangor reference librarian Hannah Cyrus puts it, “generative AI doesn’t generate information. It generates words.”

Cyrus has taught a number of classes on the uses and hazards of new technologies breathlessly promoted as inevitable, including her most popular offering, simply called “Avoiding AI.” Her work inspired Searsmont Town Library Director Steven Brown to help remove unwanted tech from his patrons’ devices, while moving the small library away from Google tools toward more secure and private ones.

“A lot of times, it’s just telling people that they have choices,” Brown said. “Their phone came a certain way, but they don’t have to use it the way that it came.”

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People visit the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, part of celebrations for America’s 250th birthday, on Wednesday in Washington. Credit: Jacquelyn Martin / AP

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