It’s getting harder and harder to avoid AI when you open your phone or laptop – as soon as I started writing this article in Google Docs, I was immediately offered AI assist writing it (which I didn’t take). With the introduction of Apple Intelligence, this now also applies to iPhones, iPads and Macs.
However, if you don’t see much value in the Apple Intelligence features introduced so far, you’re not alone: about three-quarters of iPhone owners don’t see what all the fuss is about, according to a recent study. It’s also worth remembering that these are AI add-ons occupy 7 GB of local memory (and counting) on every device you want to operate them on.
The good news is that Apple Intelligence can be turned on and off quite easily, which isn’t something every company does with their AI tools (looking at you, Google and Microsoft). So if you find that features like writing tools and garbled notification summaries are unnecessary for your needs, you can turn them off.
Assuming you’ve already turned it on, here’s how to turn off specific Apple Intelligence features. And if you really don’t like it, here’s how to turn it off completely.
(The steps below were tested on iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 18.2. You’ll find similar options on iPadOS and macOS.)
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Most, but not all, Apple Intelligence features can be turned off individually. Open Settings on your iPhone and you will find a menu dedicated to Apple intelligence and Siri. After that, it depends on what you want to disable.
Obtain ChatGPT extension to enable or disable additional intelligent tricks that ChatGPT can add to Siri when you ask for replies.
Summaries of AI notifications, which have gotten Apple into trouble recently, can also be turned off individually. In iOS Settings, select Notifications > Notification summary to disable this feature. You can also enable this option for some apps but not others on the same screen.
You can turn off Writing Tools and Image Creation, but you have to do it Screen time in Settings:
- Obtain Content and Privacy Restrictions.
- Switch on Content and Privacy Restrictions.
- Obtain Intelligence and Siri.
- Obtain Creating an image Or Writing toolsThen Don’t let.
It’s a bit of a clumsy solution – it’s really more about preventing kids from cheating on their homework – but it works. You won’t see pop-ups to rewrite text and you won’t be able to create a novel Genmoji. Open the Image Playground iOS app and the option to create novel photos will be blocked (though you’ll be able to access previously saved ones).
Apple Mail’s AI-powered message prioritization is another feature you can turn off yourself — or, more accurately, hide it from view.
- Inside the Mail app Inboxclick the three dots in the upper right corner.
- Switch to List view and turn off Show priority.
Your inbox will return to the way it was before Apple Intelligence came out.
This doesn’t leave much in the way of Apple intelligence in iOS 18.2, which can’t be specifically disabled. There’s a Cleanup tool in the Photos app and a Shrewd Breakthrough feature in Focus, but you can easily ignore these options if you don’t need them.
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If you really don’t want anything to do with Apple Intelligence and you’ve already turned it on, you can turn it off completely.
- Open Settings > Apple intelligence and Siri.
- Look for the Apple Intelligence toggle at the top to fully enable or completely disable all Apple Intelligence features currently available on your iPhone.
The first time you turned on this switch – assuming you did – iOS downloaded the necessary AI models to your phone for local processing. These models, which take up about 7GB of space, will remain on your iPhone in the future, regardless of whether you have Apple Intelligence turned on.
If you want to turn off Apple Intelligence AND to free up space used by local iOS models, you’ll need to reset your iPhone and start over without enabling Apple Intelligence during setup. You can do this in Settings by selecting General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and SettingsSince this will obviously wipe everything on your phone, make sure you’ve backed up all your essential data.
At least for now, you have a lot of control over vigorous Apple Intelligence features. However, we know there are many more AI improvements on the way, so we’ll have to wait and see if Apple Intelligence remains an optional add-on for the iPhone.
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