IT Home October 20 news: According to TechCrunch and Mashable reports on October 19 local time, some developers and ordinary users have begun using AI tools such as Claude Code to clean up ads and preinstalled software in smart TVs and disable tracking features, in order to reduce ad interference and improve operating smoothness.
One project, named CleanYourTV, was launched by developer Gathin T. He provided Claude Code with the TV model his parents use; Claude Code connected to the TV via Wi-Fi, disabled 25 software packages, and generated a new launcher that replaced the TV's original home screen with a cleaner interface.
Gathin T. then made the related prompts and project code public, saying that in the following two days thousands of users tried similar modifications on their own devices.
Another project, named DumbTV, was developed by developer Muzzammil Yasin Sabuwala, aiming to reduce TV ads, user behavior tracking, and unnecessary software updates. Sabuwala told TechCrunch that the project was developed with assistance from models including DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Claude Opus 5.5, and Claude Sonnet 5.5.
According to TechCrunch, DumbTV has been end-to-end tested on Fire TV Edition TVs as well as Android TV or Google TV devices from brands such as Sony, TCL, Philips, Hisense, and Xiaomi, and also supports Nvidia Shield devices. The project's developer suggests that users use their preferred AI agent and combine it with the project code on GitHub to complete the relevant configuration.
Beyond using ready-made projects, some users have directly asked AI coding agents to help modify their TV systems. X user Ryan Doyle shared on October 17 that he provided Claude Code with his TV's product information and asked whether the device could be modified; following its guidance, he removed ads and some preinstalled software, adjusted the screensaver, and improved the interface responsiveness.
IT Home notes that these modifications mainly target preinstalled apps, launchers, and ad-related features in smart TVs. Modern smart TVs may also carry Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) technology, which identifies the content being played through screen images, audio snippets, or other digital fingerprints, used for viewing behavior analysis and personalized ad targeting. The related projects attempt to give users more direct control over the TV interface and some background functions.
However, these projects are still in ongoing development and testing, and cannot yet be guaranteed to work on all TV models. TechCrunch reported that some users encountered problems such as the AI refusing to execute modification requests or the process being interrupted, and some said their Android TV stopped working properly during modification. Because system components and software packages differ across TV platforms, disabling the wrong system component may cause device malfunctions or even prevent startup.