Turn off and restrict access to Apple Intelligence features on Mac

The new liquid glass ui also fails a lot of basic accessibility checkpoints like contrast, readability, and increases cognitive load.

The rounded corners you speak of also hamper tap and touch targets for users with motor disabilities. The rounded corners make icons and other elements less distinct, increasing the possibility of touch or tap errors.

It's not really "code" in the traditional sense

  # touch com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM_GenerativeModels
  # chflags schg com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM_GenerativeModels

- opt-in without user consent

- on already traditionally overpriced Apple hardware

- storage being overpriced to insane levels on top due to the AI bubble

- apple hardware being impossible to upgrade by the user to higher amount of storage due to chips soldered on or artificial limitations on what storage can be installed

It allows me to save money by calling a model on the users device rather than spending tokens (or forcing the user to spend tokens).

I don't use AI personally though. So when I found out that apple intelligence is currently taking up 10gb on my macbook m1 with the tiniest configuration at the time, that's massive. I've turned everything off and denied it access to training on any sort of apps and it's still using up 10gb of my 128. Meaning that Mac OS now takes up 53.76% of my drive. The AI I don't use being 12.8 of that. If Apple sold devices with large drives as default that might be less of an issue, but they don't. It's a little ironic, but I originally switched from Linux to Apple because I want my technology to work out of the box, but now it looks like I'll soon be going back for that same reason.

As for the other AI features such as autocomplete, memoji, notification summaries... I'm really not a big fan at all.

1. Lose the user, make him struggle to find items in the Start menu (Windows), struggle to type words on the keyboard (iOS), or struggle to manage find their subscription (Atlassian),

2. ???

3. Profit

If it's a dark pattern, I'd like to know what step 2 is. Who knows, maybe the goal is to overwhelm the user and it's a spy operation from the KGB.

Is it not Privacy & Security -> Apple Advertising -> Personalized Ads?

I am sure my Macbook uses a RNG to decide whether or not I can use touch ID to unlock.

For instance (this is just sequoia, but same for ios) searching for "improve" finds:

"improve assistive voice features" (I turned it off)

and diagnostic & usage data with: "improve siri & dictation" (I turned it off)

but under spotlight, it doesn't find "help apple improve search" (I turned that off too)

- Accessibility > Siri > Siri Speaking Rate

or

- Siri > Voice

Because in iOS 27 these two are absolutely not the same thing, and the one you probably want is the latter.

Not to say they wouldn't try...

There isn't iOS in the menu at all but it'll say confidently like it is and you'll be triple checking yourself for 5 min like a complete idiot

But still, I fully share the sentiment that creators of an OS are perfectly capable of bypassing whatever there is running on top of it.

Through my own usage of Little Snitch, it appears that all the iCloud-related features use individual binaries and that iCloud connections go to specific hosts for specific use cases (e.g. pxxx-contacts.icloud.com, pxxx-quota.icloud.com, pxxx-caldav.icloud.com). I'd assume the AI features are the same - specific hosts and binaries that I can block.

Because I’d guess nearly everyone wants the new Siri to just be there and working.

> In one model, for example, Apple worked to determine how the “less seamless experience” of using a non-IAP method would lead customers to abandon their transactions. By modeling where this tipping point was, Apple was able to determine when the links would stop being an advantage to developers, which would push them back to using IAP.

> Apple also found that more restrictive rules around the placement and formatting of the links themselves could reduce the number of apps that decided to implement these outside links.

> Lawyers suggested Cook himself was involved with how the warning to App Store customers would appear, recommending an update to the text that appears when the external links were clicked. In one version, that link warned customers they were “no longer transacting with Apple.” Later, the link was updated to subtly suggest there could be privacy or security risks with purchases made on the web.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/24/apple-exec-phil-schiller-t...

Until you need to install an app through the App store. Even a free app will refuse to install without an iCloud account. Frustrating when you want something with a verified source, for me it was Wireguard, and don't want to build it locally.

Should your computer automatically build search indexes for your files? For most people, fast search is more useful than the disk space this takes up, but it would be doing something you didn't explicitly invoke.

Should your computer turn on global spell check (and even basic auto correct) for text fields? Again, you didn't invoke it explicitly, but most people probably think it's a good idea.

So you might say "well anything that just runs locally is ok" but even that's thorny. Obviously much of the AI stuff apple has been implementing is running locally and some of it has been around for a while (image classification in Photos for example). But not everyone wants the AI, even with local models.

And then there's things like "should your computer default to using NTP time?", again most people would probably say yes, especially given how important accurate time is for modern computer security. But it requires your computer doing network requests to make it work.

"Should your computer automatically check for updates?", again for most people the answer is probably "yes it should". But again it requires your computer to do network requests to make it all work.

"Should your computer automatically scan for malware?", probably yes it should, but keeping those malware lists up to date is going to require network requests and access.

There's always a tension between "being helpful and useful out of the box" and "doing stuff the OS vendor wants".

Anyone who wants an OS that does nothing out of the box is always free to grab any x86 box and install ArchLinux on it, but most people don't do that for the same reason that Spacemacs / Doom Emacs is more popular than a raw emacs install, and things like Sublime, or Notepad++ are more popular than those. Defaults matter a lot.

The internet and its consequences have been a disaster for the personal computer user.

Is my Mac doing something wrong here? Anyway to see what's inside?

https://i.imgur.com/YRQiaVm.png

- Not enough space to update iOS without a computer tether, even though there would have been if that ~13GB on my phone was actually freed up. Instead I had to delete several GB on my phone.

- Recordings stopping due to lack of space, and again the 13GB LLM model on my phone was not removed before running into this.

I'm actually not where if/when I'll ever get my space back, and this is on iOS 26. It takes up even more space on iOS 27, and I don't have enough free space to waste on my 256GB phone.

It makes large allocations fail which would have otherwise succeeded.

"When you need it" is a state you can only enter into, AFAICT, when you approach the limit gradually, not abruptly.

In this regard, Apple did not learn from the free U2 album they automatically added to everyone's iTunes account at no charge.

There was enough outrage at the lack of consent in that decision, Apple had to create a special support path for removing it from accounts.

Given the divisive opinions about AI, it's odd Apple didn't include a "delete" button to completely remove it from your device if you wish.

https://web.archive.org/web/20141116221641/https%3A//support...