RemoveMacAI: Disabling Apple Intelligence and Reclaiming Disk Space on macOS 27

RemoveMacAI enables full removal of Apple Intelligence on macOS 27

RemoveMacAI is an open-source utility designed to disable Apple Intelligence features and delete the associated foundation and generative models from macOS 27. Because macOS 27 does not provide a global toggle to completely remove these models from the disk after features are disabled, RemoveMacAI uses a configuration profile and Apple's asset service to ensure the models are deleted and prevented from automatically re-downloading.

Technical Implementation and Mechanism

RemoveMacAI operates without modifying the /System directory or requiring the disabling of System Integrity Protection (SIP). It employs three primary mechanisms to achieve its goals:

  • Configuration Profiles: The tool installs a configuration profile that applies Apple's restriction keys for Apple Intelligence. This forces the system settings to a "disabled" state for features that lack a specific restriction key.
  • Asset Service Integration: Models are removed using Apple's own asset service, ensuring the deletion process follows system protocols.
  • Download Blocking: To prevent macOS from automatically re-downloading the models, the configuration profile redirects model download requests to a closed local port.

Supported Features and Model Removal

Executing the tool disables a wide array of AI-driven capabilities and removes their corresponding disk footprints:

Disabled Features

  • System-wide Tools: Siri (including "Hey Siri" and the menu bar icon), Writing Tools, Genmoji, and Image Playground.
  • Integration Extensions: The ChatGPT extension and summaries in Mail, Messages, Safari, Notes, and notifications.
  • Productivity Tools: Mail smart replies, inline text predictions, and Xcode predictive code completion.
  • Visual Tools: Spatial Photos and Photos Clean Up.

Removed Models

  • Apple Intelligence foundation models.
  • Models specifically for image generation, Genmoji, Spatial Photos, Photos Clean Up, and Xcode code completion.

Note: Dictation remains functional as it uses separate speech models that are not targeted by this tool.

Installation and Usage

RemoveMacAI requires a Mac with Apple silicon and is compatible with macOS 27 (tested on 27.0 and 27.0.1).

Installation Methods

  • One-line Installer: curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/omlahore/RemoveMacAI/main/install.sh | bash
  • Homebrew: brew install omlahore/tap/removemacai

Key Commands

Command Description
removemacai Displays current state and disables Apple Intelligence
removemacai status Lists active features and the disk size of models
removemacai off --keep <features> Disables AI while keeping specific features active
removemacai revert Undoes all changes and allows macOS to re-download models

Community Insights and Perspectives

The release of RemoveMacAI has sparked significant discussion regarding the direction of macOS and the value of on-device AI models.

Arguments for Removal

Many users cite the high cost of Apple's SSD storage and the significant disk space (some users reporting up to 12GB) consumed by these models. There is a prevailing sentiment that the lack of a native "off" switch for these models represents a shift toward "bloatware" and a loss of user control over system resources.

"Reminds me of all the de-crufting you've always needed to do when you install Windows. Looks like we've gotten to the point on macOS too, where you need to run third party scripts on a new OS installation to gain back control of your system resources and remove unwanted crapware."

Arguments for Retention

Some users argue that the local-inference models are well-balanced and provide privacy benefits by keeping tasks off-cloud, making the disk space trade-off acceptable for the average consumer.

Security and Trust

Users have raised questions about the security of running shell scripts from the internet. The developer has addressed this by providing build provenance attestations via GitHub Actions, allowing users to verify that the download matches the repository's source using gh attestation verify.

Project Origins

RemoveMacAI is built upon the work of the project pared, which initially mapped the asset service, model sets, and various settings keys required to disable these features.

Sources

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