How do I disable the "Artificial Intelligence (AI) Host [etc]" feature?

Anonymous
2023-02-09T16:34:50+00:00

We have started getting complaints from our customers over this "feature" as it appears to be quite the resource hog, and of course they are blaming our add-ins.

Killing the ai.exe process appears to have no ill effect on the usability of Office programs such as Word, Outlook or Excel.

So I need to know how we can disable it. I'd prefer to give an instruction to our users on how they can switch off a feature they do not want, they feel they do not need, and that causes their old PCs to start sounding like a Harrier Jet taking off.

Thank you

Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | Other | Other

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Anonymous
2024-02-07T21:10:13+00:00

This seems to work. There are all sorts of solutions put out there that involve things like editing the Registry. Here's a much easier fix that seems to have worked for me (and this is from The Geek Page https://thegeekpage.com/how-to-disable-the-artificial-intelligence-ai-host-feature/).

First, the obvious: delete the AI executables from the OFFICE folder:
ai.exe

ai.exe
aitrx.dll

Second - this is incredibly easy. Deleting the executables does not completely work because Office automatically updates itself with new copies of those files.

Since the AI Host runs when you use an Office app:
Disable the Office app updates.

To do this, open any Office application, like Word.

– Click the “File” menu and then the “Account” menu item - this may be under the "More..." menu item, in which case click "More..." and then click "Account"

– There, click on “Update Options”, which brings up a popup menu - on the popup menu, set that to “Disable Updates” to disable Office updates for all Office apps

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-06-20T04:50:26+00:00

    Yeah... another "wonder". It appears to lock up my Outlook. Figured out how to disable AI, and now this... "webview2". Its another forced feature with no working removal as of yet... I will be looking into it. Its 6/19, maybe in a week.

    My suspicion is that webview2 is how Outlook 2019+ will be heading towards a web-based UI with the "New Outlook", which I find quite horrible.

    I haven't experienced any problems with Outlook 2019 and its multitude of webview2 instances on the machines that run 2019, however as noted previously the one PC that runs Outlook 2016 does not launch webview2 at all, so I will be investigating downgrading just Outlook to 2016 at some stage.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-06-20T17:23:12+00:00

    I'm not that computer savvy. I need something simple and easy like going into the program and deleting it from there.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-06-20T18:25:06+00:00

    I believe I have Office 2016.... and I have about 8 instances of webview2 running under the Outlook task. They need to stop "making things better"...

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-06-20T18:36:28+00:00

    It won't get any easier than running a batch file. It does all that for you. Do you know how to run a batch file as "administrator"? I can't possibly start giving lessons in these things here. I can send you a link where you can download the batch file for 24 hours. You save it to a location... and either run it in terminal or cmd prompt - depending on which version of windows. Unless you schedule it to run periodically - your ai.exe will return next time you do updates.

    Any of this something you can do?

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