How to turn off Apple Intelligence on a Mac running macOS 27

Apple's own Mac User Guide page for macOS 27, "Turn off and restrict access to Apple Intelligence features on Mac", lists the Apple Intelligence settings one feature at a time. Here are those steps as Apple writes them, plus what Apple says about storage and processing. The turn-off page shows no date; the storage figures come from an Apple support page dated 15 September 2026.

Why this came up today

A GitHub project, RemoveMacAI, was posted to Hacker News on Sunday evening and had 556 points and 372 comments when we read it on Monday morning. Its README says: "macOS 27 no longer has a single switch for Apple Intelligence, and its models stay on disk after the features are turned off." That is the developer's claim, not Apple's. The README says the tool uses a configuration profile to turn the features off, removes the models and stops macOS downloading them again. The GitHub API lists it as MIT-licensed.

We are not recommending it: its first suggested install (it also offers Homebrew) is a one-line curl … | bash command, which runs a script from the internet on your Mac, and we have not audited the code. The steps below use only Apple's own settings.

Turn off features one by one (Apple's steps)

Apple's page lists these options, quoted as written:

• Siri AI (Beta): "Go to the System Settings app on your Mac, click Siri in the sidebar, then click Turn Off Siri. Click Turn Off Siri again to confirm."
• Switch to Siri Classic: follow the steps above, then "Click Turn On Siri, then select Use Siri Classic."
• Messages summaries: "In the Messages app on your Mac, choose Messages > Settings, then turn off Summarise Messages."
• Email summaries: "In the Mail app on your Mac, choose Mail > Settings, then click Viewing. Turn off Summarise Message Previews."
• Notification summaries: "Go to the System Settings app on your Mac, click Notifications in the sidebar, then click Summarize Notifications. Turn off Summarise Notifications." (Apple's UK page spells the word both ways in one step.)
• Personalized Smart Replies in Mail: "In the Mail app on your Mac, choose Mail > Settings, then click Composing. Turn off Personalise Smart Replies."
• Voicemail suggestions in Phone: "In the Phone app on your Mac, choose Phone > Settings, then click Calls. Turn off Suggestions in Voicemail."
• Writing Prompts in Journal: "In the Journal app on your Mac, choose Journal > Settings > General, then turn off Get Writing Prompts."
• Call Context cards: Apple points to its page "Customise apps Siri has access to".

Restrict features with Screen Time

Apple also points to Screen Time: "To change these settings on your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings, click Screen Time in the sidebar, click Content & Privacy Restrictions, then click Siri." From there, Apple says you can choose "Don’t Allow Siri", or "Siri Classic" to "Use Siri without AI-generated responses", and set each listed capability, "like Broad World Knowledge or Writing Assistance", to Allowed or Blocked. Apple notes that "The available options may vary depending on your Siri version and by country or region."

How much storage Apple says it needs

Apple's page "How to get the next generation of Apple Intelligence" (Published Date: September 15, 2026) lists, under system requirements:

• "Up to 14 GB of storage on device for … Mac models with M3 and later and at least 12GB of unified memory".
• "Up to 8 GB of storage for other Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro models".

Apple lists these as requirements for getting the features. Its turn-off page does not say whether that space is freed when features are switched off, or describe deleting the models.

On-device or in the cloud

Apple's "Apple Intelligence and privacy on Mac" page says that "In many cases, Apple Intelligence models run entirely on device". For "more complex requests", it says Apple Intelligence "can use Private Cloud Compute", which "uses larger, server-based models", and that the data processed there "is not stored or made accessible to Apple". It adds: "Private Cloud Compute isn’t available in all regions."

UK availability and language

Apple says "many Apple Intelligence features are available in most regions around the world", but also that "Apple Intelligence on macOS 27 is not available in all languages or regions". English is on its supported list, and Apple requires the "Device language and Siri language set to the same supported language". Siri AI is "Available in English to start", according to Apple.

What people said on Hacker News

Reaction was mixed. Some top-level comments objected to the install method ("Stop the curl | bash insanity") or asked "How do we believe this tool? Is it secure?" Others were positive: one said "They're doing curl | bash properly", citing the README's build provenance note. One asked why anyone would remove "well-balanced and relatively small local-inference models"; replies cited small base-model SSDs and wanting control. The account that posted the link had not commented when we read the thread.

Why it matters

On our reading, Apple's documentation offers Mac users per-feature switches and Screen Time restrictions rather than one off switch, with storage requirements of up to 14 GB or up to 8 GB depending on the Mac. That the models stay on disk after the features are off is the developer's claim; the Apple pages we read do not address it.