LG's Software Update Forces Microsoft Copilot Onto Smart TVs (tomshardware.com) 57
LG smart TV owners discovered over the weekend that a recent webOS software update had quietly installed Microsoft Copilot on their devices, and the app cannot be uninstalled. Affected users report the feature appears automatically after installing the latest webOS update on certain models, sitting alongside streaming apps like Netflix and YouTube.
LG's support documentation confirms that certain preinstalled or system apps can only be hidden, not deleted. At CES 2025, LG announced plans to integrate Copilot into webOS as part of its "AI TV" strategy, describing it as an extension of its AI Search experience. The current implementation appears to function as a shortcut to a web-based Copilot interface rather than a native application. Samsung TVs include Google's Gemini in a similar fashion. Users wanting to avoid the feature entirely are left with one option: disconnecting their TV from the internet.
LG's support documentation confirms that certain preinstalled or system apps can only be hidden, not deleted. At CES 2025, LG announced plans to integrate Copilot into webOS as part of its "AI TV" strategy, describing it as an extension of its AI Search experience. The current implementation appears to function as a shortcut to a web-based Copilot interface rather than a native application. Samsung TVs include Google's Gemini in a similar fashion. Users wanting to avoid the feature entirely are left with one option: disconnecting their TV from the internet.
Cord-cutting cord-cutter (Score:5, Insightful)
Cool, glad I never connected my TV to the Internet.
Re:Cord-cutting cord-cutter (Score:5, Informative)
We bought a 43 inch LG "smart" TV for our rec room to play content stored on my media server, and had to return it because it refused to work without an internet connection.
Could not get past the wifi setup screen without entering a network.. tried a floating AP but then it kept detecting no internet connection and going back to wifi setup.
They want your data, and they will deny you use of your own stuff to get it.
Re: Cord-cutting cord-cutter (Score:2)
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The update is optional, so No, I think.
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That's interesting, I bought an Hisense Vidaa TV and it works fine without an Internet connection. It actually very politely asks if you want to connect to a network but lets you skip its terms and conditions and use it with networking disabled. When changing inputs it still shows the smart tv dashboard with Disney+ recommendations stuck in time somewhere in 2024 but it otherwise works fine. I haven't let it do any updates, but I am not using any of its built-in apps at all.
I also have an Amazon Fire TV tha
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Re:Cord-cutting cord-cutter (Score:5, Interesting)
Jeff Geerling had a similar issue when he found that some of the advertised features of a Bosch dishwasher were locked behind an app and you had to connect it to WiFi to enable:
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/b... [jeffgeerling.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
I think in his case he was so invested in time with installing the thing before he found out about that limitation that he just sucked it up and kept it. We all encouraged him to take it back to make a statement to Bosch and the retailer but I get why one would feel defeated at that point.
(For the record, I don't have a beef with smart TVs but I draw the line at WiFi kitchen appliances)
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I would assume he is given he described exactly what happened when he tried to not set up a Wi-Fi connection.
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I would assume he is given he described exactly what happened when he tried to not set up a Wi-Fi connection.
Like the person who responded to my comment earlier in this thread, I just switched inputs when it asked for my network credentials and I was off to the races. He didn't say he tried that. If a person doesn't tell me exactly what they pushed and when, I don't assume. I've done too much tech support and similar.
Re: Cord-cutting cord-cutter (Score:2)
I bought a 43 inch smart tv from LG to be my monitor. I'm using it right now. Never connected to the network.
Re: Cord-cutting cord-cutter (Score:2)
Same. It did come on the first time asking for WiFi info, but I just pressed the "input" button on the remote and selected HDMI2 and haven't interacted with anything but the power button since. Maybe he's trying use the "smart" functions to play local media through a USB stick or something??
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Which is why I gave the one LG TV I have a connection to the internet, and then black-hole routed anything it tries to do with it other than talk to my local network.
Fuck their updates - I don't use their software anyway, other than to enable control of the TV over HDMI-CEC so the set top box I actually want to use can adjust volume / power on/off. Same thing I do with Samsung since they started enshittifying their TVs too.
But mostly I just don't buy from either company any more.
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That's interesting. My LG TVs don't do that, but I have never accepted their user agreement. Have you?
Mine sit behind a pair of AppleTVs with no network access of their own so their ad BS is hidden from me, and the TVs don't keep asking for a network.
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Re:Cord-cutting cord-cutter (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Cord-cutting cord-cutter (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem is the cost of the bandwidth to serve graphical ads is still quite high. For low bandwidth applications, there are 10 year subscription plans which are quite reasonable, but graphical ads would not fit into that use case. The additional cost of the bandwidth would have be paid for by the advertisers in some form. They could of course figure out a model to somehow pay for this.
If I purchased a TV got it home and plugged it into the AC socket without connecting it to my network, and saw it was serving ads. I'd return it and buy a digital signage TV, or use a PC and a large computer monitor if all of the manufacturers did this.
Regarding that celluar antenna used by the cellular modem: Nothing that a pair of dykes or an X-acto knife couldn't fix provided you are willing to void your warranty.
Of course, the TV could refuse to work if it couldn't contact the mothership.
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So soon we will need Faraday cages for our TVs?
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Or, better yet, buy a book, or a baseball glove and a pass to the local park. You know, do something other than watch brain rotting television all the time (which sucks anyway).
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Or just a router that allows you to say "any traffic going from this device to anything outside the local network goes to /dev/null"
Fuck them.
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Digital signage and other professional displays are unlikely to be infected by this consumer-class nonsense.
It might cost a little extra to get displays designed for signage or medical imaging, but there will always be something in that space.
And a Faraday should be unnecessary. Removing the modem or snipping the antenna should disable cellular comms.
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People need to stop connecting Internet of Trash devices.
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The day will come when a TV (or dishwasher or refrigerator) will not function at all without an internet connection.
Re: Cord-cutting cord-cutter (Score:3)
It already has...
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/b... [jeffgeerling.com]
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I've had issue with my dishwasher lately and have been avoiding replacing it. Now I'm going to have to be dreadfully aware of ensuring anything I buy DOES NOT have Wi-Fi. I'd probably even get the sales manager to sign something guaranteeing it has zero Wi-Fi capabilities and accept a full return no-questions-a
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Then some of us will go back to washing dishes by hand, and using ELI the Ice Man.
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In which case I open a support case with the manufacturer and say that the device isn't doing it's primary function, for reasons not made clear up front when I bought it to be a fucking dishwasher instead of a browser.
And if they can't make it be a dishwasher, then they get to pay for someone to come out and uninstall it for a very expensive return. And if they don't want to play ball, then I chargeback on my AMEX.
Fuck them.
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This is why I got a Sony tv in 2020 and have not connected it to the internet. Worth the price differential.
Still, what I really want is a decent 65" display; no speakers, no OS, just a bright colorful screen with quick refresh.
Your Telescreen just got an update (Score:3)
Re:Your Telescreen just got an update (Score:5, Insightful)
Orwell would have had a field day with Copilot and AI TVs.
I'd imagine Orwell would be quite angry today.
Takes an unreal amount of ignorance to turn a fiction writer into a fucking prophet.
Re: Your Telescreen just got an update (Score:2)
Not just a prophet, more like a sad reality guiding-star for some people... but always for the allegedly good-and-justified-cause. Because we were always at war with insert-here.
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Not just a prophet, more like a sad reality guiding-star for some people... but always for the allegedly good-and-justified-cause. Because we were always at war with insert-here.
Sadly with those preaching the continued necessity of Us vs. Them politics in America, we're always at war with ourselves.
Imagine how far a country could progress if it didn't find a pointless need to devolve into that childish pissing match bullshit. Long past time we demand Representatives return to office and make Politician a four-letter word.
They are desparate to find a use case for AI (Score:3, Interesting)
Dumb TVs (Score:2)
Everyone knows it is actually Dumb TVs that update themselves in a way as to force things on you, like spying and advertising.
Speaking in .bomb (Score:2, Troll)
describing it as an extension of its AI Search experience..
We generally understand how search works today. And what goes on behind the scenes (indexes, database optimizations, etc.)
The FUCK is an "AI Search experience"? Some shit we're regurgitating from the .bomb era? How exactly is AI helping here?
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"AI Search Experience" is a euphamism for "we vacuum up each and every morsel of data we can aquire from you whether you approve or not, and then spit it all back out at you as advertising"
Fuck that, and fuck them. Do not want.
But, but ... (Score:3, Funny)
Not connecting to the internet (Score:2)
WebOS is shitty and laggy enough without having it try to drive an AI interface. I bought the TV for its picture quality not to have a half baked LLM tell me what to watch. Even on my brand new G5 OLED, which must have some decent horsepower for all the image processing it can do, the menus take a few seconds to load in. No way am I trusting them with an internet connection. I hooked up a separate media player box and my PS5 and the TV has never even seen my network.
"Television" seems so outdated (Score:2, Insightful)
Why not just rename the device to Telescreen?
You can hide it (Score:3)
Use the edit function, highlight Copilot and move it to the hidden apps tray.
Re:You can hide it (Score:5, Informative)
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Oh, so that way it's an obfuscated spy that is stealing all audio happening within it's microphone's pickup range.
Still a giant fucking "NOPE"
Factory reset (Score:2)
Then don't update. Ever.
The only question is if you can update apps without updating the TV software itself, or for how long.
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You can always do that, by buying a $40 streamer that hangs off the HDMI port and saying FUCK YOU as loud as you can to LG.
Even an Amazon streamer thingy is better than the shitty software LG ships anyway. Stop using that spyware slow junk.
I love my C8. But... (Score:2)
My 65" C8 is the best television that I have ever owned, hands-down, but I turned that smart TV dumb almost immediately. Once a year I check for firmware updates using a temporary guest network. If I find an update that I think I need I install it then otherwise I leave it alone.
In my electronics graveyard are three generations of Roku, two Nvidia shields, a Chromecast, a couple of Kodi, boxes, on Amazon fire stick, and probably some more devices that I have forgotten about. I also have an Xbox that was my
Re: I love my C8. But... (Score:2)
I tried! (Score:5, Insightful)
If I bought a pair of pants in 2020, and then 5 years later Levi's decided to "change the terms of the license" and turn them neon green, and if I didn't agree to turn them neon green they'd essentially stop working as pants...consumers would throw a fit and so would Congress. But with electronics, for some reason this is the accepted modus operandi and we as consumers just have to sit here and take it?
The remote control test (Score:2)
My litmus test for a connected TV or set-top box is whether the remote control it ships with sells ad space to streaming services. As of today, I'm not aware of anything that passes that test.
I cautiously put aside my instincts and let my new LG C2 TV connect to the Internet when I purchased it ~3 years ago, because the UX is pretty solid, the gyro remote works really well, you can disable most ads, and at the end of the day it's no more intrusive or ad-filled or data-smuggling as a Roku or FireTV or any ot
So ditch smartTV's (Score:2)
and do your own android video box
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Can I attach my debugger? (Score:3)
Just say NO (Score:2)
PC Master Race (Score:1)
Radicalized (Score:1)
Read "Unauthorized Bread" from Cory Doctorow's book of short stories, "Radicalized". It's well write and entertaining, and really puts this in perspective.
Clippy (Score:2)
It looks like you're changing a channel !