AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from Ars Technica, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

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A new command-line tool called RemoveMacAI allows Mac users to easily turn off Apple Intelligence features and free up storage space. Unlike previous versions of macOS, the latest version known as macOS 27 Golden Gate does not include a built-in toggle for disabling these AI capabilities. Consequently, the necessary AI models occupy disk space even if users do not use them or attempt to disable specific features through settings.

Developer Om Lahore created RemoveMacAI on GitHub to address this issue. The tool removes Siri, Writing Tools, Genmoji, Image Playground, the ChatGPT extension, and other summaries while deleting the underlying models. According to the developer, Apple’s Intelligence models take up about 12GB of space, though they can occupy over 30GB in total. Dictation remains functional because it operates under a separate setting.

The tool functions by using a configuration profile approved in System Settings and Apple’s asset service, ensuring that System Integrity Protection stays active and no files are touched directly within the /System folder. The process is fully reversible; running the revert command removes the profile, allowing macOS to download the models again when features are re-enabled. As of this writing, the project has 1,700 stars on GitHub.