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

Anonymous

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

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Anonymous

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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240 additional answers

Anonymous

2023-07-10T23:06:58+00:00

You have virtually rendered Microsoft Word inoperable when sharing Word documents with others via email. I will be forced to use Google Docs to create text documents. Please remove this AI thing from Microsoft 365. I need my Word program to work.
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Anonymous

2023-07-10T23:54:52+00:00

You need to talk to Microsoft. I am just another afflicted and pissed off user... though there are three of us who have posted the means for you to remove it or disallow it from running. Start reading from page two.
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Anonymous

2023-07-11T01:20:40+00:00

I'll try your fix. Remember, not everyone understands the tech language. I read the "instructions" several times before I posted my question and really didn't understand what would work. I found the ai.exe files and deleted them. I really hope this doesn't cause my computer to crash. I'm using Windows 10 on a Microsoft Surface btw. Thanks for the help. Hope it works as that glitch has caused me significant loss of productivity in the last week!
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Anonymous

2023-07-11T02:00:15+00:00

That fix where they are deleted is improved upon later in the discussion.... but you got the files you need to get if AI isn't running with Outlook or Word running. Scheduling the deletion as a task by putting the delete commands into a batch file - created in notepad and saved as xxxx.BAT... then scheduling that to run will stop it from running for long after it gets reinstalled from Windows or Office updates... I scheduled it to run every hour. The other method is through Group Policy as long as you have Windows Pro version. The third way was to block it with your anti-virus software. Most have a way to add programs to a blocked list of sorts.
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