Apple Intelligence downloaded itself. Is this normal?

[auxbuss]

Woke up on Saturday morning to find a notification on my Air announcing that the machine was now ready for Apple Intelligence. Curious, I checked my disk space and lo and behold 9Gb had disappeared overnight. The culprits appear to be these two files:

Now, I am deeply uninterested in Apple Intelligence, so no "accident" was made. What is also odd – unless I'm out of date – is that I'm in the UK, and my understanding was that this stuff wasn't being released here till some time later this year.

Note: Siri is also off, and always has been.

My question: Can I safely delete the above two files? (Presumably in Recovery Mode, SIP off, etc.)

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

You apparently have automatic updates "on"... or the last manual update install may have thrown the switch to automatic updates. After updates, you have to re-check things you changed from default.

There are great motivations to switch select settings. For example, always re-check iCloud "on" settings after each update. If some of those can get switched from "off" to "on", free iCloud will suddenly reach "full" and there will be some compulsion to start paying forever rent to buy more space to resolve the issue. That's a profitable "accident" if some of those toggles get thrown. Oops or is that Oop$$$?

I don't know the answer to your question but hopefully someone else will.

 

[Fishrrman]

The question:
"Apple Intelligence downloaded itself. Is this normal?"

Speculation:
Perhaps Apple intelligence... is smarter than you think... 🎃

 

[bogdanw]

Profile that disables “Download newly available updates in the background” and “Automatically install macOS updates” https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ignore-sequoia-for-90-days.2436999/post-33626862

 

[auxbuss]

You apparently have automatic updates "on"... or the last manual update install may have thrown the switch to automatic updates. After updates, you have to re-check things you changed from default.

Sadly not that:

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I wonder if those 2 are considered "System Files" by Apple?

Else perhaps just another bug in the systems. There's a lot of them. Maybe this is simply another that will hopefully be addressed in some future upgrade... maybe.

 

[auxbuss]

I wonder if those 2 are considered "System Files" by Apple?

Apple Intelligence isn't included in the list of things comprising system files (and, obvs, nor should it be):

About background updates in macOS – Apple Support (UK)

Your Mac will automatically install Rapid Security Responses, security-configuration updates and system data files in the background.

support.apple.com

 

[auxbuss]

Profile that disables “Download newly available updates in the background” and “Automatically install macOS updates” https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ignore-sequoia-for-90-days.2436999/post-33626862

Thanks, but I have those two options switched off.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Yes, I'm just guessing at how this happened to you but not to apparently others. Or perhaps others haven't noticed yet? There's a LOT of Airs out there. This should be a big news item if it was happening to many. Since it is apparently not, what is different about your Air or you as user interacting with it, etc?

If others start chiming in with the same, we can start thinking it's an Apple problem/bug. While it seems limited to one Air (so far), ideas like user error, user settings, etc tend to apply.

 

[orbital~debris]

Woke up on Saturday morning to find a notification on my Air announcing that the machine was now ready for Apple Intelligence. Curious, I checked my disk space and lo and behold 9Gb had disappeared overnight. The culprits appear to be these two files:

View attachment 2472267

Now, I am deeply uninterested in Apple Intelligence, so no "accident" was made. What is also odd – unless I'm out of date – is that I'm in the UK, and my understanding was that this stuff wasn't being released here till some time later this year.

Note: Siri is also off, and always has been.
View attachment 2472268

My question: Can I safely delete the above two files? (Presumably in Recovery Mode, SIP off, etc.)

As to the UK part of your post – no, Apple Intelligence was released for UK customers in early December when macOS Sequoia 15.2 was made available.

As it's already installed, it might at least be worth giving it a go. I've found it to be nicely integrated across the OS and helpful at smaller things here and there, without having to use a third-party.

 

[michaelsv]

I got the same problem roughly on the same date. During 15-20 January there was downloaded and created a lot of files (around 60GB) on my macbook, consisting of apple intelligence sip protected models and media analysis daemon's caches. That is sad.

 

[auxbuss]

I got the same problem roughly on the same date. During 15-20 January there was downloaded and created a lot of files (around 60GB) on my macbook, consisting of apple intelligence sip protected models and media analysis daemon's caches. That is sad.

I have an Retina Air from 2021 that came with Monterey. Despite always updating to the latest macOS – it is now limited to Sonoma – it periodically downloads the whole Monterey install (11Gb) to /Applications. No idea why. No idea how to stop it doing that.

 

[scouser75]

I had the same thing a couple of weeks back. Turned on my MBP and was met with a greeting telling me Apple Intelligence was ready for use.

I didn't think much of it and thought this was normal as I have Sequoia.

I also have auto updates turned off as I like to install firmware updates when I'm ready for them. The AI update I thought was normal as it wasn't a FW update.

 

[kagharaht]

It also turned itself on on my iMac M3 and wife's MBA M2. I manually turned it off.