Apple Intelligence may become mandatory in iOS and macOS 27
Until now, Apple has kept Apple Intelligence — the suite of artificial intelligence tools baked into its operating systems — entirely optional. If you don’t want it, you can simply skip it during a new device setup or when updating the system.
That show of respect for its customers may change with iOS/macOS 27. Reports suggest that, at least in the first beta, Apple Intelligence is mandatory:
“So what’s the problem?”, you might ask. Apple’s AI takes up several gigabytes of storage and leaves less headroom for RAM. Not a big deal if you’re running a beefy Mac. I suspect it will be for mine, with its modest 256 GB of storage and a mere 8 GB of RAM 🥲
The Register points to another issue. With the new Siri AI, Spotlight — the system-wide search feature — changes how it behaves. It now attempts to answer queries that previously returned straightforward, predictable results.
Brandon Vigliarolo, the post’s author, says he’s used to using Spotlight to kick off a Google search. Siri AI now tries to answer the query itself, drawing on Gemini’s “brain”:
Overall, the experience reminds me of Google’s infamous and often wrong AI Overviews, which push actual search results down the page in favor of information force-fed by Google Gemini.
There’s still hope that Apple will reverse course and continue allowing Apple Intelligence to be disabled in the version 27 operating systems.