How to Remove AI From Your Google Chrome Experience

Like every other tech company out there, Google is investing heavily in AI. Which, among other things, means they’re trying to insert it everywhere they can, regardless of whether you actually wanted it or not — and that includes their Chrome web browser.

For starters, when you perform a search in Chrome, the results page is often a cluttered mess of links, images, videos, and AI-generated summaries that may or may not be filled with errors. Chrome also prompts you to use its “AI Mode” for searches, replacing its traditional web search with one powered by the Gemini AI assistant. Fortunately, it’s fairly easy to remove both of these.

To force Chrome’s search to return a list of plain ol’ website results:

1. Open up Chrome’s settings or enter chrome://settings in the search bar.
2. Click on “Search engine” in the left menu.
3. Click on “Manage search engines and site search” to bring up a list of the search engines available in Chrome.
4. Click “Add” in the “Site search” section to launch the “Add site search” dialog.
5. Enter Google Web in the “Name” field.
6. Enter @web in the “Shortcut” field.
7. Enter {google:baseURL}search?q=%s&udm=14 in the “URL with %s in place of query” field.
8. Click “Add” to save your changes. You should now see “Google Web” in the “Site search” list.
9. Click the three vertical dots next to the newly added “Google Web” option and select “Make default” in the popup menu. The “Google Web” option should now be appear in the “Search engines” list as your default search engine.

Now, when you do a search in Chrome, your results should just be a simple list of web links, as God intended. You can further verify that the above is working if you see udm=14 in Chrome’s search bar or if the “Web” tab is selected. (Note: The above process can also be done in other browsers, not just Chrome; more info at tenbluelinks.org.)

As for disabling Chrome’s “AI Mode,” that can be done via browser flags:

1. Enter chrome://flags in the search bar. This brings up a list of experimental browser features that can be toggled on or off.
2. Search for “AI Mode Omnibox entrypoint.”
3. Set “AI Mode Omnibox entrypoint” to “Disabled.”
4. Relaunch Chrome.

After it relaunches, Chrome will no longer prompt/goad you into using “AI Mode” for your searches. I’m not sure how long this particular flag will last, but best to enjoy it while it’s available. (Note: There are several other “AI Mode”-related browser flags, but those can be left “as is.”)