Some smart TV owners use AI agents to remove bloatware

By Splitfeed EditorialLast updated Oct 19, 2026, 17:20 UTC

On October 19, 2026, TechCrunch reported that a growing number of smart TV owners are deploying AI agents to strip bloatware, disable advertisements, and remove tracking features from their devices. The piece, titled "People are using AI to make their smart TVs dumb again," described the practice as a consumer-driven workaround against the default software environments that ship with modern smart TVs. No specific platforms, AI tools, or user numbers were named in the available reporting.

The story sits at the intersection of two long-running tensions: the friction between device owners and manufacturers over software control, and the expanding practical reach of AI agents into everyday consumer tasks. Smart TV makers have increasingly embedded advertising and data-collection systems directly into their operating platforms, generating revenue from the interface itself, not just the hardware sale. When users find those systems slow or intrusive, the traditional fix has been to plug in an external streaming stick and ignore the TV's own software. The novelty here is that AI agents are being used to intervene at a deeper level, potentially altering or replacing the manufacturer's software environment rather than simply routing around it. Whether that raises legal questions around terms of service or warranty, and how manufacturers might respond, remains unsettled.

None of the three camps have published reactions to this specific story yet. The Pro-AI camp would typically frame this as a clear demonstration of AI delivering tangible, user-directed value, putting powerful tools in the hands of ordinary people rather than institutions. The Anti-AI camp would more likely focus on the risks of running opaque AI agents with deep access to consumer hardware, questioning whether users genuinely understand what these tools are doing to their devices. The Middle Ground camp would probably acknowledge the appeal of the use case while calling for transparency about how these agents operate and what access they require.

The argument will sharpen if any major TV manufacturer issues a formal response, updates its terms of service to address AI-assisted modifications, or if a specific AI tool used for this purpose gains enough traction to be named and scrutinized. Any regulatory interest in smart TV data practices in the United States or European Union could also reframe how this workaround trend is interpreted.