Thread

Turn off Apple Intelligence on macOS 27 and get its disk space back

515 points · 323 comments · privacyisntdead

_pdp_ · 1791151663 · focus · HN ↗
I don't understand why you would want to remove well-balanced and relatively small local-inference models that ship with every mac.
Sure, not frontier levels but fine for basic tasks and they are off-the-cloud.
1. dbetteridge · 1791151861 · focus · HN ↗
  Even if you don't want to personally remove them, it should be easy and front and centre to do so.
  It's my disk space, processing power and electricity. Apple shouldn't get to use it as they please
2. PhageGenerator · 1791151924 · focus · HN ↗
  The point is that it downloads a multi-gig model automatically without providing an easy way to reclaim that storage space if you don't intend to use that feature.
  This is very much an anti-user behavior. Certainly having models run on-device is preferred when possible, but if you don't want to use the Apple Intelligence this is an anti-feature. Especially on devices with small storage capacities which are impacted the most by this.
  1. Daz912 · 1791160932 · focus · HN ↗
    [dead]
3. zanderwohl · 1791152419 · focus · HN ↗
  Because the Macbook Air still comes with only 512 GB of SSD in its default config. A feature that you rarely use probably isn't worth even 1/50th of your meager storage.
  1. Gigachad · 1791168214 · focus · HN ↗
    The neo comes with 256gb, which would be fine if they used it sparingly, I don't have any issue with this much storage on my phone, but on macos the space just gets eaten up by junk and is hard to manage.
4. causesothere · 1791152455 · focus · HN ↗
  Here are a few reasons someone would want that. You might not value them the same, but that does not make them wrong.
  1) They have issues with the ways these models were trained. They may consider it unethical to use models trained on what they consider plagiarized material or on material that used a lot of energy for training.
  2) They may have higher value uses of the storage space and compute resource.
  3) They may view installation of apps and features without consent to be an infringement on running their device the way they would like.
  4) They may find the general technology and its impact on society to be concerning, anxiety inducing, frustrating, or irritating. And simply not want to participate.
  5) They think it sucks. Like, out just doesn't work or doesn't help them.
5. tiborsaas · 1791154266 · focus · HN ↗
  That's why: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/1vaUMi5" rel="nofollow">https://imgur.com/a/1vaUMi5
  Let me juggle juggle with the small space I have the way I want.
6. Crontab · 1791154661 · focus · HN ↗
  I don't want AI, at all, and especially not on my operating system. I am leaving my Macbook Pro at version 26 and will not update to 27 until there is some kind of master off switch. If that is not provided by Apple by the time I am ready to replace my computer than I will be going the open source route.
  I am personally tired of Apple and Microsoft fattening up operating systems.
7. seam_carver · 1791156601 · focus · HN ↗
  Because Apple still sells 256 gb base models like the m6 Mac mini
8. nunez · 1791157081 · focus · HN ↗
  Because I don't like features being shoved down my throat. Simple as that.
  I'd be much more willing to try the stuff if they gave me control over when I do so LIKE THEY DID IN THE VERSION LITERALLY PRIOR TO THIS ONE.
  Apple did the same thing with watchOS by the way. They forced a stupid new quick actions menu that always pops up before getting to the all apps screen and removed the app switcher. if you want to terminate non-working apps that are prone to not working, like Apple Music, the solution now is "well, tough shit."
9. _nothing · 1791157211 · focus · HN ↗
  I don't use and don't want to use any feature that is listed there. I don't use Siri on my Macbook, I don't need writing tools run on every single thing I write, I hate text predictions, I don't want summaries on the content I want to read, I don't need models analyzing my photos in the background.
  In fact I don't want models doing anything in the background that I didn't explicitly ask them to do.
  1. dominotw · 1791165393 · focus · HN ↗
    i am looking forward to building safari extensions by typing words
10. ruhrohraggy · 1791158737 · focus · HN ↗
  [dead]
11. dawnerd · 1791163572 · focus · HN ↗
  I don’t know why pro AI people have such a hard time understanding consent.
  1. senordevnyc · 1791165931 · focus · HN ↗
    Did you consent to every other feature of macOS, the many thousands of them?
    This has nothing to do with consent. A product you use is going in a different direction than your personal preference. Nothing new here.
    saghm · 1791166379 · focus · HN ↗
    Intentionally eliminating a choice that they used to provide that many people would still like the ability to choose is not a new phenomenon, you're correct. That doesn't make it any less user hostile when it happens though, and I think plenty of people don't think "well plenty of other sucky things happen in similar ways" to be a good reason not to be upset when a new unnecessary sucky thing happens.
  2. dwaite · 1791175002 · focus · HN ↗
    What is the consent line being drawn here? From handwriting recognition and mail filtering from back in 2002, face detection in iPhoto back in 2009, text to speech and Siri, dictation, NLP, text to speech, the vision framework, and Core ML are all examples of AI/ML tech that have shipped at some point standard on new Macs long before Golden Gate.
12. saghm · 1791166177 · focus · HN ↗
  Because I could use the same space (12 GB, not something I'd consider "relatively small" on my work laptop with only 500 GB) for things that I actually use? I don't have any need for basic off-cloud AI tasks.
13. VCFundedGenYer · 1791167376 · focus · HN ↗
  First of all, an OS needing to download multiple gigabytes of nonsense that the vast majority of users will never touch, is an absolute non-starter.
  Also, a 256GB Mac Mini literally cannot function with this garbage installed. There isn’t enough disk space.
14. redox99 · 1791173283 · focus · HN ↗
  I love local models, but the AFM advanced or whatever its called (the 20B local one) sucks. And it's not really used in MacOS outside of "fm" and very niche stuff. Siri is always cloud even if you're offline.
15. qn8bdebq · 1791176226 · focus · HN ↗
  If you don't have a 256 gig mac, you'll never realize how scarce the space is.
  If they wanna fill roughly 10% of your usable space with stuff you don't really use, with option to remove, you'd be mad too.
16. Pavilion2095 · 1791181489 · focus · HN ↗
  Because if I'm already using AI, I need and probably have access to something better than a primitive local model. And if I don't use AI, then I don't need it.

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