LibreOffice Commits to No AI in Default Install — SkimNews
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- The Document Foundation announced in a blog post this week that LibreOffice "will not add" AI for the foreseeable future, calling the lack of generative AI features a "deliberate design position."
- The foundation said no current AI integration meets its criteria, which require that user data stay on the device and that the software not depend on a single AI provider.
- LibreOffice repeated the no-AI stance weeks after the late-August release of its latest version, which it confirmed "contains no generative AI features" and requires no network connection to function.
- Tens of millions of users and organizations rely on the software, and the foundation argued that for confidential, legally privileged, or personal data, "the only assurance that survives an audit is that it does not leave the machine."
- Users who want AI can still install extensions that connect LibreOffice to local AI models, but the default installation will remain AI-free until the foundation revisits its assessment.
- The decision runs against an industry trend of bundling AI into consumer software, a pattern some critics have labeled "enshittification" and that has spurred separate tools designed to strip AI features out.
Why it matters: For organizations handling confidential, legally privileged, or personal data, on-device processing is the only audit-proof guarantee, and LibreOffice — used by tens of millions — is now making that the default rather than an opt-in setting. The foundation left the door open to AI extensions, so the real gatekeeper is its data-stays-local, no-single-vendor criteria.
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