If you have a Mac and never asked for Apple Intelligence, there is now an easy way to switch it off. Ars Technica reports that a new open source tool lets Mac users turn off Apple Intelligence with one command and free up to 12GB of storage.
Here is the problem it solves. Older versions of macOS had a single toggle for Apple Intelligence. macOS 27 Golden Gate does not. To turn the features off, you have to hunt through settings one by one. Even then, the AI models that power them stay on your disk, whether you use them or not.
A developer known as Om Lahore on GitHub built RemoveMacAI last week to fix that. Per its GitHub page, it is meant to "turn off Apple Intelligence on macOS 27" in a way that is "fully reversible." The developer said the models take up "about 12GB," though Ars points out that The Verge found they can take up more than 30GB.
So what does it actually remove? In a Reddit post first spotted by MacRumors, the developer said the tool "turns off Siri, Writing Tools, Genmoji, Image Playground, the ChatGPT extension, and all the summaries, then it deletes the models and stops macOS from downloading them again." Dictation keeps working because it is a separate setting. You also do not have to go all or nothing. The developer said you can remove only the features you do not want and keep the rest.
The part that makes me comfortable with this tool is how it works. The developer explained that it uses a configuration profile you approve in System Settings, along with Apple's own asset service. That means System Integrity Protection, the Mac's built-in guard for core system files, stays on, and nothing in the protected System folder gets touched directly. To undo it, a single revert command removes the profile, and macOS downloads the models again when you turn a feature back on.
As a developer, that is the design I would want. A lot of cleanup scripts for computers work by forcing changes into places the operating system is trying to protect. This one goes through the front door. You approve the profile yourself, and you can reverse it.
People seem to like it. Ars reports that some Reddit users say the tool works, and it had 1,700 stars on GitHub at the time of writing. One Hacker News commenter compared it to the cleanup people have long done on fresh Windows installs. They wrote that it 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."
I would not go that far. Plenty of people enjoy Apple Intelligence, and Ars makes the same point. But choice matters, and Apple used to offer an off switch. This tool brings that choice back for the people who want it.
If you are thinking about trying it, my advice is simple. Read the GitHub page first so you know exactly what will be switched off. Back up your Mac before you change system settings, which is a good habit anyway. Then decide which features you really use. If the only thing you need is dictation, you can clear out the rest and get a nice chunk of disk space back on a smaller laptop drive. And if you change your mind later, you can turn everything back on.
