Simon is a Computer Science BSc graduate who has been writing about technology since 2014, and using Windows machines since 3.1. After working for an indie game studio and acting as the family's go-to technician for all computer issues, he found his passion for writing and decided to use his skill set to write about all things tech.
Since beginning his writing career, he has written for many different publications such as WorldStart, Listverse, and MakeTechEasier. However, after finding his home at MakeUseOf in February 2019, he would eventually move on to its sister site, XDA, to bring the latest and greatest in Windows, Linux, and DIY electronics.
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Summary
- Vibe coders use LLMs to strip smart TVs down to just the apps, HDMI, and no ads or tracking.
- Open GitHub projects like CleanYourTV and DumbTV automate reversible TV de-bloating via ADB, no root.
- LLM reverse-engineering now ports and recreates software and hardware features, sidestepping corporate limits.
AI is getting so powerful that users are taking products into their own hands. Recently, we reported on how a team recreated Adobe's products using AI and offered them for free. Now, we're getting reports that people are vibe-coding solutions that strip the "smart" out of smart TVs, leaving them with just the bits people actually want.
A new wave of "dumb TV" vibe-coded apps are making their way online
People are even doing the job themselves
As spotted by TechCrunch, vibe coders have discovered that if you point a powerful LLM such as Claude at a smart TV, it can do a pretty good job of removing all the parts of it that you don't want. TechCrunch points at two GitHub projects that claim to do just that: CleanYourTV and DumbTV.
For a general idea of what these apps can do, here's the intro to DumbTV:
"Your TV should do what you paid for: your apps, your HDMI inputs, and nothing else. No ads from the TV itself, no watch tracking, no update you did not ask for. dumbtv applies that over ADB from another machine — no root, nothing written to
/system, every step reversible with one script."
These scripts have been made possible due to the increasing power of LLM coding, specifically, reverse-engineering. Over on the gaming side of XDA, we're reporting on people using AI to decompile and port games over to PC and other consoles, the most recent report being Pokémon: Let's Go arriving on PC. Combine that with the Adobe alternatives we mentioned earlier and this smart TV hack, and it seems people are beginning to use AI to modify products as they please, much to the chagrin of big businesses.