AVOID AI: Tips & tools (pt. 2)

EXTENSIONS AND TIPS TO AVOID AI WHILE BROWSING

There's an extension called Slop Evader, which lets you browse the internet giving you results from before November 30th 2022. You can search Google, Reddit, Quora, Stack Exchange, Pinterest, and YouTube. Unfortunately, there's a lot of human generated content that has appeared since 2022 (and that will continue to appear) that this method will hide. But it's good enough as long as you're not looking for something that has to be recent/updated.

The extension is available for Chrome and Firefox, but you can also go to the official site and directly browse from there: https://slopevader.com/

Slop Evader for Firefox (extension): https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/slop-evader/

Slop Evader for Chrome (extension): https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/slop-evader/mlofdhcgaaimlpbjlhpfnpjfpebjpdpp?pli=1

A similar thing you can do but manually, without the need of any extension/site, is write "before:x date" after your search. For example: "funny videos before:2018" and all the content that shows up will be from before that date, which can be any date you want.

I also found another extension called AI Content Shield, available for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. It has a few features you gotta pay for, which sucks, but amongst the ones available in the free version you have: Block AI Mode, AI Overviews, AI-sourced images on Google, Bing & DuckDuckGo; Block AI-Generated, AI-Related YouTube, TikTok videos & summaries; Block AI-generated, AI-related posts, Grok actions on X.com; Block tagged AI-generated, AI-related posts on Instagram, Facebook & Threads; Block AI artists on Spotify, YouTube Music; Block AI answers, AI-related posts on Reddit; Block AI-generated, AI-related posts on Pinterest, and Block AI-related content on other websites.

I've been trying it for a few days, and it sort of works. It gets rid of the main AI summaries, but I find that in the "More Questions" section, even if you have "Block AI answers" activated, AI summaries still show up.

Link to the official site: https://www.aicontentshield.app/

Keep in mind this extension (or any other similar extension, as far as I know) doesn't get rid of the AI content in your browser, it just hides it.

WRITING PLATFORMS/PROGRAMS

As you might've realized, Google Drive has now been AI infected too, including Google Docs, which is one of the primary free tools for writers. Here's a few free alternatives I found:

First of all, Libre Office, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It's similar to Microsoft Office, but completely free. Besides of a writing program, it also includes an alterntative to other Microsoft programs like Excel, PowerPoint, etc., and it's completely AI free. Official site: https://www.libreoffice.org/

FocusWriter, which is a simple and distraction-free word proccesor, available on Windows and Linux. You can hide the interface away to be able to focus and customize its appearence to your liking. It doesn't use any AI. Official site: https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/

Then we have Ellipsus (especially recommended for my beloved AO3 fanfic writers), which is web based. What you write saves automatically and you can invite collaborators (it's a collaborative writing tool). It also includes an option to directly export to AO3 or copy the text as HTML, Rich Text, or Markdown. You can also download as a PDF, Docx, or Markdown. In terms of AI, it has a strict anti-AI policy.

PROGRAMS FOR DESIGNERS/ARTISTS

The only free alternative (for graphic designers) I could find that uses no AI is GIMP. It's a cross-platform image editor available for Linux, Mac, Windows, and a few other operating systems. It's thought for graphic designers, photographers, and illustrators. It has many customization options and you can add third party plugins. It provides tools for high quality photo manipulation (like Photoshop), great for digital illustration, and it has programming algorithms. The only thing it can't do is create vectors because it's a pixel-based program. Other than that, I've seen many designers recommend it online. Official site: https://www.gimp.org/

For artists, a good program that has stated to be anti-AI is Krita. It's a completely free, open source painting program, widely recommended by a lot of artists online. Official site: https://krita.org

Another thing designers can do is pirate some version of Adobe programs old enough for it to not have any AI feature… from 2021 and below. Can't recommend a website for this because I've yet to find a safe one 💔

EXTRAS

For those wanting to switch to physical media, this guy on TikTok @dzin4k has tutorials on how to make your own DVDs, which can be cheaper than buying them. There's also countless of other tutorials online, along with ones on how to make your own music CDs!

Now, where to get movies/music for free? Both to sabotage rich streaming companies such as Netflix (bring back the art of going to the cinema 🙏) and for those trying to make their own DVDs/CDs!

Disclaimer: Before going to the following websites, you should activate an ad blocker. I've been using uBlock Origin, which is completely free: https://ublockorigin.com (also, no ads when wathing YouTube :D)

For movies, I REALLY recommend themoviebox.org, this one has NO ads, and you can find almost every show/movie. It also gives you the option to download them in your preferred available quality.

There's also Cineby.gd. This one does have a bunch of ads, so an ad blocker comes in handy. This website also gives you the option to download movies/shows.

Both of these require you to sign in before downloading. I don't think these websites are dangerous (I've been using them for a while), but just to be safe, I'd recommend you create a new gmail/use an uninmportant one to sign up.

As for music, there's TONS of YouTube to MP3 converters online. I mostly use https://y2mate.gs. All you have to do is go to YouTube, chose any music video, copy the link, and paste it on this website. It'll convert it to an MP3 file (or it can also be the video, MP4), and generate a download link. I've been using these kind of websites for YEARS, all you gotta do is learn to avoid the ads and false download links (which an ad blocker does automatically).

Anyway, that's all for now! If I find more things, I'll make a part 3. Please, feel free to share any information/tips you might know!!