It's only been a year, but it seems like AI has invaded every nook and cranny of our lives. The relentless barrage of AI-driven suggestions, art, and even Google searches has been exhausting, but none have been quite as annoying as Meta’s new AI search feature. 

Meta’s AI is… overzealous. It wants to be a part of every search, conversation, and comment, at this point, and I for one hate it. I haven’t been the biggest fan of the AI-arms race, but this has been one of the worst additions I’ve seen so far. Unfortunately, it’s not something we can turn off completely, but there is a way to work around our new little “friend.”

How to Mute Meta AI:

Muting doesn’t get rid of Meta AI completely. You’ll still see the circle logo, and if you click it, it will open up the Meta AI chat window. However, muting it will help keep it so you won’t have ten million quotes or random searches popping up in your search bar. 

• On the Facebook mobile app
• Tap the “search” button
• Tap the blue circle on the left,
• Hit the little circle with an “i” inside it in the upper right hand corner. 

Here, there will be a “mute” button, with options to silence the chatbot for 15 minutes or longer, or “Until I change it.” 

Unfortunately, this is now the new way to search in Meta, and just as with Google’s AI summaries, the responses will be generated by AI. This is just a small way to keep Meta AI from being 'too much.'

Use Old School Facebook

Now, if Meta AI (and all of Facebooks new features) bother you that much, you can jump back like, a decade, (no, really), and go to Facebook's stripped-down mobile site. It's not the most user friendly, but this crude version isn't likely to ever use AI. 

To use it, just open your browser and go to, mbasic.facebook.com. It won't be pretty, especially on desktop, but it'll work!

Sad to say, but it looks like Facebook's AI won't be going away any time soon. Hopefully these little hacks bring a little relief!