People are using AI agents to strip ads from smart TVs

TechCrunch reported on 19 October that smart TV owners are using AI coding agents to strip ads, trackers and bloatware and install a simple home screen. One developer entered his TV's model number into Claude Code; the agent found the set on Wi-Fi, removed 25 Xiaomi packages and wrote a new launcher.

cleanyourtv was started by Gathin T., tired of ads on his parents' TV. It targets Android TV and Google TV, needs no root and allows a factory reset. dumbtv, built by Muzzammil Yasin Sabuwala with DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Claude Opus 5.5 and Claude Sonnet 5.5, aims for "your apps, your HDMI inputs, and nothing else". It was tested on a Fire TV Edition set and Android/Google TV hardware from Sony, TCL, Philips, Hisense, Xiaomi and Shield.

dumbtv reportedly disables about 65 packages, including Amazon's automatic content recognition (ACR), the ad ID and watch-time analytics. ACR identifies what is on screen via screenshots, audio or fingerprints for ad targeting.

Disabling voice and casting removes those conveniences, and most debloat lists also turn off update services, so security fixes stop. AI lowers the barrier to modification but can brick devices through misidentified firmware.

For many TV makers, ads and data now earn more than hardware. Agents open this clean-up to ordinary users and challenge the assumption that people keep default settings. Connected TV advertising relies heavily on ACR measurement, which could lose accuracy.

Removing packages used to mean enabling developer mode, installing the ADB command-line tool and researching each package by hand, with the risk of breaking the device. Coding agents now find the TV on the network, list packages, explain what each does and ask for approval. A technical job becomes a few sentences of instruction.

• Don't rely on one signal users can switch off; build first-party data.
• Ask for consent with clear value in return.
• Make ads less intrusive; frequency and irrelevance drive blocking.