README.md

The No-AI Software Directory

This repository will be a community-curated list of software and resources that explicitly avoid the integration of artificial intelligence.

Criteria

To ensure this directory remains universally useful to a broad audience, it prioritizes general-purpose software and daily computing tools (such as web browsers, text editors, email clients and more) over highly specialized industry or niche platforms. To be included in this list, a project should meet any one or more of the following criteria:

• Explicitly "No-AI": The project's developers have made a public statement or have a clear philosophy against integrating AI features.

• AI-Free by default: The core functionality of the software does not include AI-driven features. While plugins may exist, they are not part of the default installation.

Software Categories

• Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) & text editors:

  • Vim: A highly configurable text editor built to make creating and changing any kind of text very efficient.

  • Neovim: A hyperextensible Vim-based text editor.

  • GNU Emacs: An extensible, customizable, free text editor and much more.

  • Sublime Text: A sophisticated text editor for code, markup and prose. (Note: While some AI plugins exist, the core editor is AI-free).

• Office Suite

  • LibreOffice: An open-source, privacy-oriented office suite that is developed and distributed without out-of-the-box AI functionality.

• Email Providers:

  • Tutanota: A secure and private email service that offers end-to-end encryption for all data. Has a publicly stated policy against integrating AI features for privacy reasons. [Link]

• Social Networks:

  • Mastodon: It is a free and open-source software platform for decentralized social networking with microblogging features similar to Twitter.
  • Pillowfort: A social blogging platform with a blend of features inspired by Tumblr and LiveJournal. Their Terms of Service explicitly prohibit the posting of images created through the use of generative AI programs. [Link]

• Operating Systems:

  • Gentoo Linux: Known for its source-based package management, offering a high degree of user control. It has a stated policy against AI-generated contributions.

• Web Browsers:

  • Waterfox: Waterfox is a free and open-source web browser and fork of Firefox. It claims to be ethical and user-centric, emphasizing performance and privacy. Claims it will not include LLMs in their current form or for the foreseeable future. [Link]
  • Vivaldi: Vivaldi is a cross-platform web browser based on Chromium. Its design and feature-set primarily targets power users. Claims it will not use an LLM to add chatbots, summarization solutions or suggestion engines. [2025] [2024]
  • LibreWolf: A custom, independent fork of Firefox with the primary goals of privacy, security, and user freedom. The development team has a publicly stated policy against supporting generative AI features, promising to remove or disable any that slip through. [Link]
  • Pale Moon: A highly customizable, open-source web browser built on an independent platform with zero telemetry. The developers have a strict policy against integrating AI or LLMs within the browser, stating that probabilistic AI models have no place in a tool designed for reliably retrieving and consuming web content. [Link]

Community & further reading

• Why I'm not letting the juniors use GenAI for coding by Luke Plant: A post discussing the negative impacts of LLMs on the learning curve, code comprehension and long-term skill development of junior developers.
• Modern software quality, or why I think using language models for programming is a bad idea by Baldur Bjarnason: A critical analysis arguing that language models act as "liability engines" that generate code developers don't understand, ultimately accelerating the accumulation of technical debt.
• Is there a no-AI audience? by Shubham Bose: A blog post exploring the growing user frustration with forced, opt-out AI integrations in everyday software, the resulting privacy and performance implications, and the core philosophy behind building this no-AI directory.

Coming up. Links to more forums and other online communities where developers discuss traditional and AI-free development practices.

No-AI project policies & manifestos

Coming up. I plan to list a collection of links to discussions, mailing list threads along with official policies from open-source and closed-source projects that have chosen to limit or ban AI-generated contributions.

How to Contribute

Sure thing, you are welcome to contribute! The primary rule is to ensure any additions align with the no-AI philosophy of this repository.