IT Home October 7 news: If you are looking for document editing software that does not use artificial intelligence, LibreOffice may be just the right choice for you.
The Document Foundation, the non-profit organization behind the open-source document editing software LibreOffice, stated in a blog post this week that it is not categorically rejecting artificial intelligence, but in the foreseeable future it "will not" add AI features to its own software.
A few weeks before this blog post was published, in late August, LibreOffice had just released its latest version. At that time, the non-profit organization already reaffirmed that the software "contains no generative AI features".
LibreOffice said at the time that this was a "deliberate design positioning", intended to ensure that users' documents are not uploaded to servers for processing and that no part of the software's operation requires an internet connection. The non-profit organization added that tens of millions of individual users and various organizations are using the software, and users should always remain in control of their own data.
The organization stated: "Any organization that handles confidential information, legally privileged material, or personal data needs to know where that data goes. The only guarantee that can pass an audit is that the data always remains on the local device and never leaks out."
LibreOffice also mentioned that if users still need to use AI tools, they can install software extension plug-ins themselves to connect the document editor with local AI models.
IT Home noted that the software's choice not to include built-in AI features runs counter to the prevailing trend among many software vendors today. Nowadays, many vendors pile on all kinds of AI features, even at the cost of harming the user experience. Modern software exhibits a so-called "enshittification phenomenon": large amounts of superfluous and bloated features such as chatbots and AI assistants are added. As a result, some developers have already begun developing or adding features to block or completely remove AI modules from software.
AI tools often require uploading users' data to remote servers for processing, and users cannot control how that data is stored or how long it is kept.
LibreOffice stated that no existing integration solution currently satisfies all of the conditions it has laid out, such as keeping users' data on local devices while not depending solely on any single AI provider. The organization's standards for adding AI features to the software do not amount to "an outright rejection of AI". This decision is an assessment based on the current state of the technology, not a verdict on the value of the AI industry itself.
LibreOffice wrote in its blog post: "Until then, the software's default installation will not include any form of AI; users who want AI features can use extension plug-ins. At the same time, we will continue to closely track the actual development of this technology."