One workaround that I know would work would be an enterprise profile. I know this because I’m one of the people tasked with blocking AI stuff at my org. How you’d implement this without a subscription to management (MDM) software I leave to you to research. I know it’s possible without proprietary tools because I’ve read about people using profiles to block software updates on their personal computers, but I don’t recall how that’s done.
Just as a note, from what I see the problem is not only the privacy implications but also that the local AI comes with a baggage amounting to 10% of the space on the base mac models. Which is already severely limited.
I have not found the local/remote hand off to be very reliable either, so tasks that used to be almost instantaneous for Siri are now spinning to the point where I assume they failed. A simple 2 minute timer took almost 30 seconds to set the other day.
I've been daily-driving a mac for 10 years now and I've only ever triggered Siri by accident. I do use it pretty regularly on the phone, mostly to set timers, get directions, and call contacts, but I've been well trained over these years to not expect it to be capable of more than that.
I remember it being pretty useful on phone. Now, it can't even "like" a song when I'm driving and I want it to add a song to my Spotify favourites list. It could do a few months ago, now it refuses with "sorry there was a problem with the app".
I've had to resort to asking it to take a screenshot so I can go find the song later. Three quarters of the time it never saves the screenshot though, despite seeing the screen flash out of the corner of my eye.
In Screen Time -> Content and Privacy, there's a setting to switch Siri to 'Siri Classic' which strips out the Apple Intelligence-backed behavior specifically.
There’s the old trick of setting your computer language to be different from the Siri language. I get the following error message when I open Siri in Settings:
> Apple Intelligence requires that Mac and Siri are set to the same language. Currently your Mac is set to English (United States) and Siri is set to English (Canada).
I think at one point they may have removed this limitation but then they reintroduced it in macOS 27.0.
Yes, I did something similar: prior to disabling Siri, I set Siri's language to French and kept the system language set to English (UK), but the Siri AI.app ("Siri" process in Activity Monitor) just keeps running despite Siri being indicated as disabled in Settings.
If you are on macOS 27, could you please open Activity Monitor, search (filter) for "siri" and see if a process called "Siri" is still running?
You are right. The UI shows Siri disabled and offers to turn it on, but the process is still running. That process seems to change its name based on whether the UI thinks Siri is enabled; it can be called either just "Siri" or "Siri AI" but it’s the same executable.
Thanks, that's an interesting observation! When I double-clicked on the "Siri" process in Activity Monitor, I saw that it's an app called "Siri AI".
If the "Siri AI" app has replaced Spotlight, then I wonder if Apple keeps building "personal context" despite Siri and Apple Intelligence being disabled.
It for sure doesn't sound well to disable Siri and still see a "Siri" process.
Try disabling any of the launchd tasks related to it, odds are theres a service that starts at boot/login regardless of any user-facing setting that do nothing if they're all turned off (just like iCloud related daemons).
Odds are you'll probably run into something that requires you to disable SIP, like I did when I got tired of mediaanalysisd eating up CPU cycles on a 2018 Mac mini.
Thanks, I believe this is what the debloat script mentioned in my post does. I manually executed the `launchctl bootout` and `launchctl disable` commands on all Siri and AI-related services in the https://github.com/OleksandrKrupko/mac-os-debloat/blob/main/... script, but the "Siri" process ("Siri AI.app") still keeps running even after restarting.
The Siri AI.app is read-only, so I could not even remove it. But perhaps it would be possible to boot into Recovery, mount the system partition as rw and delete the Siri AI.app from the filesystem?
P.S. I did also disable mediaanalysisd and photoanalysisd, and those are NOT running. However, the Siri AI.app does keep running...
I don’t particularly care for MacOS but Apple’s hardware is generally best in class, particularly for battery life, touchpad, and other laptop specifics.
Same here. Unfortunately, if you use Xcode to develop for iOS, then Apple basically forces you to install macOS 27 to be able to develop for the new iPhones. The iPhone 18 Pro requires Xcode 27, and Xcode 27 won't run on Sequoia.
If anyone knows how to make the iPhone 18 Pro work with Xcode 26 on Sequoia, and in turn with iOS 27, I (and I'm sure many other people) would be very happy to hear how!
I started de-googling a long time ago, part of it was an iPhone (12 mini), 5 years later I really felt like de-Appling as well. The Appstore is a cesspool, privacy concerns are about the same as Google now (or perhaps always were?).
I went with GrapheneOS. Very good experience, but not without Google Play (store and services). It's all sandboxed, so presumably I'm only leaking consciously chosen data. It's really aimed at security, not so much de-googling. Something like Murena's /e/OS is much more aimed at de-Googling, but as GrapheneOS devs will usually be quick to point out here, they are "quite poor" with their security.
A de-Googled functional appstore on a FairPhone (+ with all the GrapheneOS required security bells and wistles) would be ideal for me. But it's still either optimal security focussed OR de-Googling/de-big-teching focused. Yes there is f-droid, but there are too many apps that require the Google services (like banking).
Atm 1 app does not work, one of my banking apps required the highest tier of Google control. I will happily install on devices that have been years without security updates though :s
One workaround that I know would work would be an enterprise profile. I know this because I’m one of the people tasked with blocking AI stuff at my org. How you’d implement this without a subscription to management (MDM) software I leave to you to research. I know it’s possible without proprietary tools because I’ve read about people using profiles to block software updates on their personal computers, but I don’t recall how that’s done.
Just as a note, from what I see the problem is not only the privacy implications but also that the local AI comes with a baggage amounting to 10% of the space on the base mac models. Which is already severely limited.
I have not found the local/remote hand off to be very reliable either, so tasks that used to be almost instantaneous for Siri are now spinning to the point where I assume they failed. A simple 2 minute timer took almost 30 seconds to set the other day.
You're brave. I'm still on Sequoia.
I've been daily-driving a mac for 10 years now and I've only ever triggered Siri by accident. I do use it pretty regularly on the phone, mostly to set timers, get directions, and call contacts, but I've been well trained over these years to not expect it to be capable of more than that.
I remember it being pretty useful on phone. Now, it can't even "like" a song when I'm driving and I want it to add a song to my Spotify favourites list. It could do a few months ago, now it refuses with "sorry there was a problem with the app".
I've had to resort to asking it to take a screenshot so I can go find the song later. Three quarters of the time it never saves the screenshot though, despite seeing the screen flash out of the corner of my eye.
[delayed]
Your training is now out of date.
In Screen Time -> Content and Privacy, there's a setting to switch Siri to 'Siri Classic' which strips out the Apple Intelligence-backed behavior specifically.
Instead of "Siri Classic", I selected the "Don’t Allow Siri" option, but it didn't help. The "Siri" (Siri AI.app) process keeps running regardless.
Sounds like Apple hired some of the Microsoft project managers.
There’s the old trick of setting your computer language to be different from the Siri language. I get the following error message when I open Siri in Settings:
> Apple Intelligence requires that Mac and Siri are set to the same language. Currently your Mac is set to English (United States) and Siri is set to English (Canada).
I think at one point they may have removed this limitation but then they reintroduced it in macOS 27.0.
Yes, I did something similar: prior to disabling Siri, I set Siri's language to French and kept the system language set to English (UK), but the Siri AI.app ("Siri" process in Activity Monitor) just keeps running despite Siri being indicated as disabled in Settings.
If you are on macOS 27, could you please open Activity Monitor, search (filter) for "siri" and see if a process called "Siri" is still running?
You are right. The UI shows Siri disabled and offers to turn it on, but the process is still running. That process seems to change its name based on whether the UI thinks Siri is enabled; it can be called either just "Siri" or "Siri AI" but it’s the same executable.
The process that shows the Spotlight UI is now the one called "Siri", previously it was called "Spotlight".
Thanks, that's an interesting observation! When I double-clicked on the "Siri" process in Activity Monitor, I saw that it's an app called "Siri AI".
If the "Siri AI" app has replaced Spotlight, then I wonder if Apple keeps building "personal context" despite Siri and Apple Intelligence being disabled.
It for sure doesn't sound well to disable Siri and still see a "Siri" process.
See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49787535
I've love to disable Apple Intelligence just to get the space back. It's murdering my Mac Mini.
Resistance is futile.
I didn't check it yet but I hope being in EU macOS 27 upgrade is basically small UI tweaks and thats it :D
Still holding off for now
Try disabling any of the launchd tasks related to it, odds are theres a service that starts at boot/login regardless of any user-facing setting that do nothing if they're all turned off (just like iCloud related daemons).
Odds are you'll probably run into something that requires you to disable SIP, like I did when I got tired of mediaanalysisd eating up CPU cycles on a 2018 Mac mini.
Thanks, I believe this is what the debloat script mentioned in my post does. I manually executed the `launchctl bootout` and `launchctl disable` commands on all Siri and AI-related services in the https://github.com/OleksandrKrupko/mac-os-debloat/blob/main/... script, but the "Siri" process ("Siri AI.app") still keeps running even after restarting.
The Siri AI.app is read-only, so I could not even remove it. But perhaps it would be possible to boot into Recovery, mount the system partition as rw and delete the Siri AI.app from the filesystem?
P.S. I did also disable mediaanalysisd and photoanalysisd, and those are NOT running. However, the Siri AI.app does keep running...
if you dont want a car with the hood welded shut.....Dont buy a car with the hood welded shut.
plenty of better operating systems out their
I don’t particularly care for MacOS but Apple’s hardware is generally best in class, particularly for battery life, touchpad, and other laptop specifics.
Sequoia will be taken from my cold dead hands.
Same here. Unfortunately, if you use Xcode to develop for iOS, then Apple basically forces you to install macOS 27 to be able to develop for the new iPhones. The iPhone 18 Pro requires Xcode 27, and Xcode 27 won't run on Sequoia.
If anyone knows how to make the iPhone 18 Pro work with Xcode 26 on Sequoia, and in turn with iOS 27, I (and I'm sure many other people) would be very happy to hear how!
This is how Apple have forced Mac upgrades for the last 20 years, there is no way round it other than to comply and buy yourself a new Mac.
I started de-googling a long time ago, part of it was an iPhone (12 mini), 5 years later I really felt like de-Appling as well. The Appstore is a cesspool, privacy concerns are about the same as Google now (or perhaps always were?).
I went with GrapheneOS. Very good experience, but not without Google Play (store and services). It's all sandboxed, so presumably I'm only leaking consciously chosen data. It's really aimed at security, not so much de-googling. Something like Murena's /e/OS is much more aimed at de-Googling, but as GrapheneOS devs will usually be quick to point out here, they are "quite poor" with their security.
A de-Googled functional appstore on a FairPhone (+ with all the GrapheneOS required security bells and wistles) would be ideal for me. But it's still either optimal security focussed OR de-Googling/de-big-teching focused. Yes there is f-droid, but there are too many apps that require the Google services (like banking).
Atm 1 app does not work, one of my banking apps required the highest tier of Google control. I will happily install on devices that have been years without security updates though :s