Fortunately, the iTerm feature is not mandatory, nor are they now sponsored by OpenAI or neglecting other "duties" (it's a free and open-source project) as far as I can tell.
iTerm has always been an "everything and the kitchen sink" type of project/software. If you want minimalism, especially in the interest of security, it's definitely not the terminal emulator for you – its attack surface must be massive.
Yeah, I'm not one of the people mad at iTerm right now, I'm simply saying those people aren't absolutely deranged and there are good reasons to balk at the inclusion of AI features where they don't need to exist.
Looking at the issue tracker, they're abusive bullies acting like they own the project though. They could've nicely instead of balking and stick to facts instead of making wild claims about bait and switch spyware. Their behavior is anything but normal.
iTerm has always been an "everything and the kitchen sink" type of project/software. If you want minimalism, especially in the interest of security, it's definitely not the terminal emulator for you – its attack surface must be massive.