AI You Did Not Ask For: Copilot, Recall, Search and Phone Defaults

The other lessons in this module are about rules that might limit AI. This one is about the reverse: AI arriving in software people already use, on by default, sometimes with a price increase attached. No U.S. law says an AI feature must be opt-in. So what you can turn off depends on what each company decided. Here is the state of the main ones as of October 2026. Software changes monthly, so check the linked help pages before you rely on a menu path.

The quick reference

Feature	Default, as of October 2026	Can you turn it off?	How
Microsoft Copilot app in Windows 11	Installed on many PCs	Yes, it can be uninstalled	Settings, Apps, Installed apps, find Copilot, three-dot menu, Uninstall
Copilot key on new keyboards	Opens Copilot	Can be remapped	Settings, Personalization, Text input, "Customize Copilot key on keyboard": choose Search or Custom
Recall (Copilot+ PCs only)	Available on personal PCs; snapshots off until the user opts in. Removed by default on managed business PCs	Yes, and it can be removed	Decline in setup or turn off in Settings, Privacy and security, Recall and snapshots; remove as an optional Windows feature
Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint (Microsoft 365 Personal and Family)	Included since January 2025	Can be disabled per app	App settings; Microsoft's announcement says users can "disable or enable Copilot as needed"
Google AI Overviews in Search	Shown on many results	No	Use the Web filter under the search box for text links only
Gemini replacing Google Assistant on Android	Removal of Assistant began September 4, 2026, per 9to5Google	No switch back on phones, per the same report	Gemini settings control activity history, not whether Gemini is the assistant

Windows: Copilot and the Copilot key

Microsoft's administrator documentation confirms the Copilot app can be uninstalled from Settings, Apps, Installed apps. Organizations can block it with an AppLocker rule naming the package MICROSOFT.COPILOT; Microsoft says the older "Turn Off Windows Copilot" policy is subject to near-term deprecation, so AppLocker is the route it recommends. Microsoft also documents a PowerShell route: Get-AppxPackage finds the Microsoft.Copilot package and Remove-AppxPackage removes it.

The Copilot key is a physical key on many keyboards sold since 2024. Since a May 2025 update it opens a lighter Copilot experience; on business PCs that is a small prompt box. Users can change it under Settings, Personalization, Text input, using the dropdown "Customize Copilot key on keyboard," which offers Search or Custom. Custom only lists signed apps whose makers registered them as Copilot key providers, so you cannot point it at just any program. Businesses can set the key with a group policy called Set Copilot Hardware Key.

Microsoft has also heard the complaints. In November 2025 Windows chief Pavan Davuluri said Windows was "evolving into an agentic OS," and he later acknowledged that many users were unhappy with that. In a March 2026 post on the Windows blog he wrote that Microsoft is reducing unnecessary Copilot entry points, starting with Snipping Tool, Photos, Widgets and Notepad, according to The Register's account. Copilot is staying in Windows. The promise is fewer places where it pops up.

Recall: the feature that records your screen

Recall saves snapshots of what is on screen and lets you search them in plain language ("the blue chart from Tuesday's email"). It runs only on Copilot+ PCs. Microsoft revised its security and privacy design in a September 2024 post, and its current documentation says:

• Snapshots are stored and analyzed on the device. Users must opt in before any are saved, and administrators cannot turn on snapshot saving for them.
• On managed business and school devices, Recall is disabled and removed by default.
• A sensitive information filter, on by default, skips snapshots when it detects potentially sensitive information of the types Microsoft lists in its filtering reference. Recall does not store DRM-protected content, record audio or save continuous video.
• Anyone can remove it with the PowerShell command Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName "Recall" -Remove, followed by a restart.

Two things the documentation also shows. If several people share a PC, each account makes its own choice. And Recall uses ordinary screenshot functions, so an app that does not mark its window as protected can end up in snapshots. For people handling confidential sources or records, the safe choice is to leave Recall off or remove it. The module Device Security and Travel covers the rest of locking down a laptop.

Google: search and phones

Google's help page for AI Overviews is blunt. It calls them a core Search feature and says "Features cannot be turned off." The closest thing to an off switch is the Web filter, which shows only text links. Google's separate Labs experiments can be switched off, but Google does not say that affects AI Overviews.

On Android, Google spent 2025 moving users from Google Assistant to Gemini. In December 2025 it said the move would continue into 2026. According to 9to5Google's August 2026 report of Google's notice, removal of Assistant from phones, tablets and Wear OS watches began September 4, 2026, and users will no longer be able to switch back. Cars with Google built in, Google TV and Home speakers were not part of that wave. Users can still limit Gemini's activity history in its settings.

Why the law mostly does not reach this

No federal statute requires AI features to be opt-in, and the federal orders in this module push adoption. Idaho's 2026 Conversational AI Safety Act, covered in the previous lesson, applies to public chatbots, but its definition excludes a feature inside another app that is not itself a conversational service, and excludes voice-activated assistants on consumer devices. So the Copilot sidebar in Word and Gemini as a phone assistant may both fall outside it, depending on how the attorney general reads the exclusions. A standalone chatbot app is the clearer case.

Supporters of AI-by-default argue that people discover useful tools only when they are put in front of them, and that every feature can be ignored. Users who object point to price increases, screen-recording risks and the hours spent hunting for off switches. Whatever your view, the practical rule is the same: the default is a business decision, and the only current checks are user pushback, competition, and in Europe, the EU's rules.