Tell HN: iOS 27 does not allow Apple Intelligence to be disabled

I'm surprised that this didn't get more attention during the Beta period.

iOS 26 had a toggle you could select to disable all Apple Intelligence features.

That toggle was removed for iOS 27. Every AI feature has to be turned off individually: https://archive.ph/AE72I

There is a way of turning it off through Content Restrictions in Screen Time, but one Redditor reported that doing this disables CarPlay for some reason.

This is pretty disappointing.

70 points | by nunez 21 hours ago

9 comments

  • rgovostes 20 hours ago
    There is no actual feature called "Apple Intelligence", it's a marketing term for a handful of disparate features that they are applying everywhere.

    Is the excellent OCR that lets me select text within an image Apple Intelligence? It uses local models. Or the prediction engine that optimizes battery life by backgrounding apps you're less likely to use, or applies updates while you're sleeping? What about the Latent Semantic Mapping text classification framework, which uses language models for fuzzy document search -- and has been around since 2007?

    It wouldn't have made sense in the past to add a master kill switch for all these features, and it doesn't really make sense now to have one for the latest iteration.

    [-]
    • _boffin_ 20 hours ago
      i really thought "Apple Intelligence" is the addition of data into Knowledge.db, but i guess not.
    • dzhiurgis 9 hours ago
      If it uses local models, why I need to join waitlist?
      [-]
      • mingus88 2 hours ago
        That’s for Siri AI and other features which use private cloud compute
    • iAMkenough 20 hours ago
      Yes, but at the end of the day they took away a toggle that allowed you to remove the latent models you don’t use and reclaim space you need.

      With Apple Intelligence disabled and ~8GB reclaimed, you could still OCR, still use Siri, still separate subject from background, translate text, so on and such.

      Now it’s all or nothing, shoving LLM weights into 128GB of storage for some people.

      There’s a better approach.

      [-]
      • layer8 20 hours ago
        CNET says that the OS auto-reclaims the space when needed: https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/how-to-turn-...
        [-]
        • iAMkenough 18 hours ago
          That’s actually more frustrating, since it qualifies with “that now-inactive space” after disabling Siri.

          To me that means if you go with the “nothing” route and disable Siri, the local latent models aren’t removed from storage until your device fills up, with the hope you enable Siri again.

          Akin to all of Microsoft's apps with disparate Windows features pre-installed and unable to be removed from your device except through Storage Sense.

  • Jackknife9 10 hours ago
    If you go to settings and disable Siri AI and Siri and then re-enable it you get the option "Try Siri AI" and "Use Siri Classic". This disabled most AI features from what I can see. The only one it didn't was notification prority.
  • pm_confidant 6 hours ago
    I belive they are investing on Apple Intelligence a lot more, I have myself built a series of apps on top

    https://yourconfidant.ai/

  • skeledrew 14 hours ago
    So interesting. Before, it was great rejoicing, smugness and whatever other related expressions when headlines were saying "Apple is sitting out AI". Now, there's evidence that it isn't the case, and there's... mostly silence, and some mild disappointment. Everywhere else there is outrage and strong feeling expressed about how Y company is slipping AI into everything, but not when it comes to the fruit company. Of course they can do no wrong; it's always the user who's at fault and needs to adopt the correct(ed) path. Funny people.
    [-]
    • kingkongjaffa 9 hours ago
      It's just following changing sentiment.

      At the time of the adverts, only a few % of tech workers were using LLMs for daily use, that number has skyrocketed and so has the appetite and acceptance that this technology is here to stay and be embraced as a serious tool for work.

      It was not at all clear (to me as a relative 'normie' and not an AI researcher) prior to about GPT4 / Sonnet 3 that they would be more than a research lab toy.

  • ChristmasTomer 6 hours ago
    Yeah, this kinda sucks.

    I don’t really care what Apple calls it. If there was one switch before, why remove it?

    If this stuff takes up a few gigs, just let people turn it all off. Easy.

  • neilalexander 20 hours ago
    There is a “Turn off Siri” option. Apple Intelligence & Siri are now effectively one.
    [-]
    • nunez 2 hours ago
      This also turns off CarPlay and disables Voice Recognition for HomePods.
    • metaltyphoon 19 hours ago
      Didn’t matter, the space on disk still not reclaimed. On my macbook air it’s 35GB
      [-]
      • brudgers 15 hours ago
        The headline was “iOS”
        [-]
        • metaltyphoon 14 hours ago
          Applies to both sadly.
          [-]
          • al_borland 12 hours ago
            My iPhone 16 Pro shows Apple Intelligence using 6.62GB, not 35GB.
            [-]
            • metaltyphoon 7 hours ago
              My iPhone 15 pro is showing 15GB
              [-]
              • gaws 3 hours ago
                All a ploy to buy a newer phone with more storage.
  • hnburnsy 18 hours ago
    Just like notifications in iOS that cannot be disabled globally.
  • aristofun 16 hours ago
    That really is a bummer, especially on basic older models where 8-20Gb of space wasted on this gimmick even if turned off is not nothing.
  • singularity2001 6 hours ago
    Lucky you, I cannot enable it (EU).