AI-scapes

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Install AI-scapes on macOS or Linux

Tested on macOS 12 Monterey and newer with Google Chrome 120+. The same steps work on Linux and in Brave, Edge, or any other Chromium-based browser that supports Manifest V3 extensions.

What you need

1. Unzip the extension

  1. Open Finder and navigate to wherever you saved ai-scapes-extension.zip (usually ~/Downloads).
  2. Double-click ai-scapes-extension.zip. macOS Archive Utility unzips it next to the original, producing a folder named ai-scapes-extension.
  3. Move the unzipped folder somewhere stable, for example ~/Documents/ai-scapes-extension. Chrome loads the extension from this folder on disk — if you delete or move it later, the extension stops working.
  4. Open the folder once and confirm you can see manifest.json at the top. That file is what tells Chrome how to load the extension.
Finder window showing the unzipped ai-scapes-extension folder on macOS, with manifest.json visible at the top level alongside background.js, content.js, experiment.html, and the icons/ and assets/ folders.
Step 1 — the unzipped folder in Finder. manifest.json should be at the top level.
Tip. If macOS unzipped the file as ai-scapes-extension followed by another nested folder of the same name, use the inner folder — it is the one that contains manifest.json directly.

2. Open Chrome's extensions page

  1. Open Google Chrome.
  2. In the address bar, type chrome://extensions and press Return.
  3. In the top-right corner, toggle Developer mode ON.
Chrome's chrome://extensions page on macOS with the Developer mode toggle in the top-right switched on.
Step 2 — the Developer-mode toggle is in the top-right of chrome://extensions.

3. Load the unpacked extension

  1. Click Load unpacked (top-left, after enabling Developer mode).
  2. A file-picker opens (Finder on macOS, your distro's file manager on Linux). Navigate to the folder you placed in step 1 (e.g. ~/Documents/ai-scapes-extension) and click Select on macOS or Open on Linux.
  3. The AI-scapes experiment card should appear with its blue logo. If you see a red error banner, the wrong folder was selected — re-select the folder that contains manifest.json.
Finder file picker on macOS with the ai-scapes-extension folder selected, ready to be confirmed via the Select button.
Step 3a — picking the unzipped folder in the Load-unpacked dialog.
chrome://extensions showing the AI-scapes experiment card loaded, with version, ID, Details, Remove, and Errors buttons visible.
Step 3b — what the loaded extension card looks like.

4. Allow the extension in Incognito

  1. On the AI-scapes card, click Details.
  2. Scroll down to find the Allow in Incognito toggle and switch it ON.
Chrome extension details page on macOS with the Allow in Incognito toggle highlighted.
The toggle to flip — bottom of the extension's Details page.

5. Start the study

The consent page already opened in another tab the moment you loaded the extension in step 3. Switch to that tab and follow the flow:

  1. On the consent page, tick the eligibility box (you confirm you are 18+, live in the US, are fluent in English, are using Google Chrome, and have an active personal Google account), then click I Agree.
  2. On the setup page, sign into Google in this Chrome profile if you aren't already (the extension requests no permissions on your Google account — it only checks for an ordinary sign-in cookie). You already enabled Allow in Incognito in step 4. Then click Start Experiment.
  3. On the experiment page, fill in the short questionnaire (three questions), then click Start study.

The extension will open 9 small Maps windows in parallel for the personalized wave, then a second wave of 9 incognito windows in parallel — 18 windows total across two waves. Each one auto-scrolls, collects the restaurant list, and closes itself. The whole run takes about 2–3 minutes. Leave Chrome in the foreground while it runs.

Lost the consent tab? Click the puzzle-piece icon in the Chrome toolbar, then click AI-scapes experiment to re-open the flow.
Heads up. The extension needs Chrome to be the focused application while it scrolls the results lists. Try not to switch to other apps for the ~2 minutes it takes to complete both waves.

Troubleshooting

"Failed to load extension" error

You picked a folder that does not contain manifest.json at the top level. Re-select the folder from step 1 — typically the one named ai-scapes-extension whose contents include manifest.json, experiment.html, and an icons/ folder.

The Incognito toggle has no effect

Quit Chrome completely (Cmd+Q, not just close the window) and re-open it. The incognito permission is read at startup.

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Uninstalling AI-scapes

You can remove the extension at any time. Uninstalling has two parts: unloading the extension from Chrome, and (optionally) deleting the folder you unzipped earlier.

1. Remove the extension from Chrome

  1. In Chrome's address bar, type chrome://extensions and press Return.
  2. Find the AI-scapes experiment card.
  3. Click Remove, then confirm in the dialog that appears.

Chrome immediately stops loading the extension and clears its local storage (the installation identifier, any in-progress questionnaire answers, and unsubmitted study data).

2. Delete the unzipped folder

  1. On macOS, open Finder and go to the folder where you unzipped the extension — typically ~/Documents/ai-scapes-extension. On Linux, open your file manager and navigate to the equivalent path (for example ~/.local/share/ai-scapes-extension or wherever you extracted the zip).
  2. Move that folder to the Trash (Cmd+Delete on macOS, Delete on most Linux file managers) and empty the Trash. From a Linux shell you can equivalently run rm -rf ~/path/to/ai-scapes-extension.
Already submitted your data and want it deleted? Email e.moroegido@northeastern.edu with the installation identifier shown on your thank-you page — we'll delete the matching record from the study database.

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