LibreOffice has announced that it will not add artificial intelligence to its open-source document editor for the foreseeable future. The Document Foundation, the nonprofit organization behind the software, stated in a blog post this week that keeping generative AI out of the default installation is a deliberate design choice meant to protect user privacy and data security.
The nonprofit emphasized that because LibreOffice contains no built-in generative AI features, users' documents do not need to be uploaded to remote servers for processing, and the software functions entirely offline without requiring a network connection. This approach ensures that organizations handling confidential, legally privileged, or personal data can verify that sensitive information never leaves their local machines during audits.
While the foundation clarified that this position is not a definitive rejection of the technology sector as a whole, it noted that current integrations fail to meet its strict requirements for local data processing and independence from single AI providers. Users who still wish to utilize artificial intelligence can install optional extensions to connect local AI models, allowing LibreOffice to buck the broader industry trend of forcing bloated AI features into productivity tools.
This decision matters because it provides millions of users and organizations with a major privacy-focused alternative that keeps sensitive document editing strictly on local devices.