[!tldr] TLDR - The AI, Rick, is designed to be an integral part of the chat and cannot be turned off. While it may seem overwhelming at first, it is generally beneficial, and complaints are minimal. If the server or users run out of credits and do not top up, access to the AI will be lost. Limiting the AI to respond only to ‘@mentions’ would reduce its interactivity and overall experience.
Rick listens to Rick (notice the capital ‘R’) or mentions by default. I understand it can be overwhelming in the beginning, but over time the amount of complaints has been insignificant, even for larger chats. Under normal circumstances, this shouldn’t be a problem unless your chat is already a trollbox. Besides, it can be really beneficial to have a living AI in your chat:
Rick is designed to live in a chat and be a part of your group; turning this feature off is not possible. Out-of-balance messages should be cleaned up by Rick; if this is not the case, make sure the bot has permissions to delete messages.
If your server/group and most users run out of credits, you will lose access to the AI anyway if you choose not to top up AI Credits.
If an individual user has credits, they can still use the AI features.
But how about only listening to @mentions to the bot?
While it might seem like a feasible idea to limit the bot to respond only to @mentions, it would significantly reduce the interactivity and overall experience. The AI is designed to be a part of the conversation and assist in a more natural and engaging manner. Limiting it to @mentions would make these interactions less fluid and may result in less utilisation of the AI’s capabilities.