Problem Solutions
Smart TV Full of Ads? People Are Using AI Agents to Strip the Bloatware
A growing number of smart TV owners are using AI coding agents to strip the ads, tracking and pre-installed software out of televisions they already paid for. The practice spread quickly in mid-October 2026, after developers published working methods on GitHub and X and thousands copied them within days. TechCrunch, which reported the trend on October 19, calls it "vibe-coding" your TV: pointing an AI agent such as Anthropic's Claude Code at the set and letting it do the technical work that used to require specialist knowledge.
The problem: the TV you bought is an ad surface
A modern smart TV is not only a screen. Its home interface doubles as advertising space: sponsored tiles and promotional panels sit next to your streaming apps, and in the case that started the best-known project, a sponsored ad appeared before the viewer could even open Netflix. Manufacturers also pre-install apps that many owners never open, and the clutter slows menus and launchers. Behind the interface, most smart TVs run automatic content recognition, or ACR, which identifies what is playing on screen using screenshots, audio clips or other digital fingerprinting. That viewing data is valuable: the smart TV advertising industry profits from selling it to advertisers or using it to target ads on the TV itself. Until now, removing it meant technical work most people cannot do. AI agents have lowered that barrier.
What people are doing with AI agents
Two open-source projects have set the pattern. The first, cleanyourtv, came from a developer, Gathin T., who was tired of the ads on his parents' television. He gave Claude Code the set's model number; the agent found the TV on the Wi-Fi network, removed 25 Xiaomi software packages and wrote a new launcher resembling Apple TV's. He published his prompt on GitHub with before-and-after pictures, and by his account a few thousand people did the same to their own televisions over the next two days — on Xiaomi, TCL, Sony, Fire TV and LG sets, and even a projector or two.
The second project, dumbtv, was built by Muzzammil Yasin Sabuwala using a combination of DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Claude Opus 5.5 and Claude Sonnet 5.5. Its stated mission is blunt: "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." It has been tested end to end on a Fire TV Edition set and on Android TV and Google TV hardware from Sony, TCL, Philips, Hisense and Xiaomi, as well as Nvidia Shield devices. Not everyone uses a ready-made project. In a widely shared X post, Ryan Doyle described sending Claude Code the listing for his TV and asking, "Can you hack this?" The agent then talked him through removing the ads and bloatware, speeding up the interface and customizing his screensaver.
How the approach works, in outline
The method uses a standard Android connection rather than any exotic exploit. The AI agent runs on a separate computer connected to the same network and reaches the TV over ADB, the Android Debug Bridge — dumbtv states that it applies its changes "over ADB from another machine." The agent then inspects what is installed, identifies the manufacturer's bloatware, advertising components and tracking services, and removes or disables those packages; 25 were removed in the cleanyourtv case. Unwanted automatic updates can also be blocked. Finally, the stock home-screen launcher can be replaced with a simpler custom one: one user reported disabling 25 bloat apps and swapping a 192 MB stock launcher for a custom 83 MB launcher. Crucially, neither project requires root access. Dumbtv writes nothing to the system partition, so every step can be reversed with one script, and cleanyourtv likewise leaves the way back to factory settings open.
The risks are real, and the limits are clear
These projects are works in progress, and the failures are on the record. TechCrunch reports that one user bricked an Android TV while working with Claude, and another got stuck halfway through modifying a Fire TV. The underlying risk is structural: an agent capable of disabling unwanted software is equally capable of disabling something the television needs, and a set that no longer boots offers no easy way back. Some users also found that Claude refuses a bare "hack my TV" request, so the outcome depends on how the task is put to it. Coverage so far is confined to Android TV, Google TV and Fire TV platforms; owners of other systems are outside the tested ground. And none of the published accounts addresses the warranty question — what manufacturer support, if any, a modified set keeps is simply not covered, so that unknown belongs in the decision.
Who should try it — and who should wait
The sensible candidates are owners of an Android TV, Google TV or Fire TV set who are comfortable following technical instructions and who could tolerate a factory reset — or a dead set — if something goes wrong. Everyone else should wait. These tools are days old, still being tested across models, and improving in public. The frustration driving them is not going away: people object to renting back, in attention and data, a product they already bought. Expect the workaround to mature faster than the business model that provoked it.