People are using AI to make their smart TVs dumb again
TechCrunch Sarah Perez
People are using AI to strip ads and tracking from smart TVs. The weird part: the same tools that make TVs “smart” are helping people make them simpler.
Based on reporting by TechCrunch, Sarah Perez — read the original for the full story.
Summary, retelling and take written by AI under human oversight; images are AI-generated illustrations. How we work · Report an error
The latest AI hobby project is turning smart TVs into, well, less smart TVs. Developers and vibe coders are posting ways to strip out sponsored ads, speed up sluggish launchers, swap the home screen, and shut off tracking features. Some of the projects have names that sound exactly like the job: dumbtv and cleanyourtv.
dumbtv says its goal is simple: keep the apps and HDMI inputs, drop everything else. cleanyourtv says it can strip bloatware from Android TV and Google TV over Wi‑Fi, and even replace the launcher with something closer to Apple TV. That’s not a brand-new kind of tinkering. What’s changed is that AI tools have made it much easier for ordinary people to do it without digging through forums for days.
That matters because smart TVs have become a little too smart for a lot of people’s taste. Modern sets use Automatic Content Recognition, or ACR, to figure out what’s on screen by looking at screenshots, audio clips, and other digital fingerprints. If enough people start cleaning up their TVs this way, it could take a bite out of the ad model that sells viewing data to advertisers or uses it for personalized ads on the TV itself.
The projects are still rough around the edges. Gathin T. said he started after getting fed up with the ads on his parents’ TV, and claimed Claude Code removed 25 Xiaomi packages and built a new launcher over Wi‑Fi. He later said a few thousand people tried similar fixes across Xiaomi, TCL, Sony, Fire TV, LG, and even a projector or two. Others have gone straight to Claude Code with their TV model and asked it to walk them through the process. Some got cleaner interfaces. Some bricked their TV or got stuck halfway through. That’s the trade: fewer ads, more control, and a better chance of turning your living room into a small-scale software accident.
If you’re nervous about letting an AI loose on your TV, there are still the old-school options: ATV Launcher, Projectivity Launcher, and FLauncher. Less thrilling, sure. Also less likely to make your television sulk.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is the kind of user revolt smart TV makers invited by turning the home screen into an ad slot. People don’t want a “content platform”; they want a box that plays their stuff and then shuts up. If AI is now the tool for filing that down, that says more about the TV industry than it does about the hype machine.
Read more about this at: TechCrunch