Turn off and restrict access to Apple Intelligence features on Mac

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Apple’s new “Apple Intelligence” features on macOS and iOS are raising concerns over storage bloat, privacy, and user control. Commenters describe local AI models silently consuming 10–20 GB of space that can’t easily be reclaimed, convoluted and poorly placed settings (often buried under Screen Time) to disable or limit AI, and uncertainty over whether tools like Little Snitch can fully prevent cloud requests. While some praise improved on-device Siri capabilities and Apple’s Private Cloud Compute design, many want a single global kill switch and a way to fully delete AI models from their devices.

Scope of Apple Intelligence and Storage Impact

  • Local models consume significant disk space (often 8–20+ GB) on Macs and iPhones, especially painful on 128–256 GB devices.
  • Space is marked as “purgeable” and not reclaimed until the OS thinks it’s needed; several users report iOS failing to purge in time, breaking updates, recordings, and app writes despite “free” space shown in settings.
  • On macOS 27 and iOS 27, there is no straightforward, supported way to fully delete models and reclaim that space.
  • Some see this as a consent issue: the device ships with large AI payloads that many users never asked for and cannot easily remove.

Controls, Discoverability, and Possible Dark Patterns

  • Disabling AI features requires navigating deep, unintuitive menus, especially under Screen Time → Content & Privacy → Siri → Writing Assistance, which many wouldn’t think to check for system-wide AI.
  • iOS reportedly needs multiple per‑app settings changes, each with several steps.
  • Users request a single global kill switch plus CLI/MDM options.
  • Opinions differ on whether this is incompetence or deliberate friction to discourage disabling.

Privacy, Networking, and Trust

  • Some try to block Apple Intelligence traffic via Little Snitch; concerns remain that macOS can bypass user‑space firewalls, citing a past system whitelist that ignored third‑party firewalls.
  • Others say they do successfully block many iCloud endpoints, accepting some breakage.
  • Apple’s Private Cloud Compute design is praised in the thread for strong technical guarantees (stateless processing, no privileged runtime interfaces, verifiable transparency), but some remain skeptical and point to past large‑scale exploits and general fears of pervasive data collection.

Philosophy of Control vs. Convenience

  • Many complain that “personal computers” now require long post‑setup rounds of disabling unwanted features, eroding agency.
  • Counter‑arguments note that most people want helpful defaults (search indexing, autocorrect, NTP, auto‑updates, malware scanning), and that minimal systems are available via Linux for those who want total control.

Perceived Usefulness and Quality

  • Experiences with Apple Intelligence/Siri AI are mixed:
    • Pro: significantly better than legacy Siri, good at context‑aware reminders, searches across apps, and offering a local model for third‑party apps.
    • Con: laggy, often irrelevant or silly suggestions, obtrusive UI (e.g., “Write with Siri” button), and seen by some as worse than web‑based LLMs or as investor‑driven bloat.

Workarounds and Hacks

  • Reported tactics include: scripts to delete model assets and reclaim tens of GB; region changes to disable Siri/AI and free space; Screen Time restrictions plus Siri language tweaks on iOS; and in extreme cases, disabling SIP or moving to alternative OSes.