How effective is turning OFF Apple Intelligence?

[machenryr]

AI in general just freaks me out. I know it's here to stay and I KNOW the marvelous and fantastic ways it can be unbelievably beneficial. My wife co-owns a company that uses AI in the medical neuro field that's mind blowing. But I don't use knowingly ChatGBT or any of that, even knowing how beneficial it would be for my writing of promo, research and stuff. I have never used it on principle. I might. I guess I'm the old get off my lawn guy. But I don't want it. I just bought a new M4 and even though I've turned it off in preferences I'm still continually being asked how I want to use or configure it. The long and short of it I don't like the road to stupidity. I can write my own things. Could AI make it a LOT better and super super fast? Yes of course. But we as a society will forget how to write. I argue that I forgot how to do math around the time Texas Instruments started coming out with calculators. I'm terrible at math but I'm pretty good with a calculator. Computers and AI are great. They do all the work and leave us to do other things, like have more leisure time. Then we don't really know how to do anything because all we do is sit around and play video games and social media. It's making us stupid, which seems by design. It's a great sociological study. Anthropologist's envy. More data collected for learning, which AI does.

Sorry. I just don't want it and I find it offensive. And I know I will get attacked as being a Luddite, especially posting this in the AI forum. How stupid of me.

 

[wonderings]

I just don't use it, at least Apple AI. I don't have anything turned off on my M1 Max, just never use it and don't get prompted to use it ever. Is something coming up on your end trying to get you to use AI for certain tasks?

 

[adrianlondon]

My iPhone 11 doesn't support it (as an aside, I wonder if that's why iOS 18.5 is running so well on it 😁) but my Macbook Pro does.

I have it turned off. The only reason I have it disabled is that, at the moment, I have no use for any of its mediocre capabilities.

 

[wonderings]

My iPhone 11 doesn't support it (as an aside, I wonder if that's why iOS 18.5 is running so well on it 😁) but my Macbook Pro does.

I have it turned off. The only reason I have it disabled is that, at the moment, I have no use for any of its mediocre capabilities.

What do you gain by turning it off on your MacBook Pro? Seems like it is extra steps to turn something off that you can just not new. I don't get pop ups saying USE AI!!!, I would never even know there was AI on my MacBook Pro without reading about it.

 

[adrianlondon]

What do you gain by turning it off on your MacBook Pro? Seems like it is extra steps to turn something off that you can just not new. I don't get pop ups saying USE AI!!!, I would never even know there was AI on my MacBook Pro without reading about it.

One of the first MacOS betas I installed asked me if I wanted to turn it on. I didn't. It never asked again.

Some people had issues with it being turned on automatically when installing subsequent betas, but for some reason that didn't happen to me.

Well, I say that, I've never actually checked my settings again! Be right back ... Still off.

I expect MacOS 16.x to have some new AI features, and if it doesn't auto-enable then I'll probably turn it on at that point.

 

[machenryr]

On my new Mac Studio M4 even though it was turned off it kept prompting me to use it. I haven't seen any prompts in the last few days though. The difference I can imagine between just not using it and turning it off might be in it's collecting of data for the AI data mine. Just a guess. I figure they have collected enough information on me already.

 

[VitoBotta]

I've been using various AI tools for years now, and as a developer, they've significantly enhanced my productivity in completing numerous tasks.

 

[machenryr]

I've been using various AI tools for years now, and as a developer, they've significantly enhanced my productivity in completing numerous tasks.

Of course. I'm not questioning that.

 

[benwiggy]

The difference I can imagine between just not using it and turning it off might be in it's collecting of data for the AI data mine. Just a guess. I figure they have collected enough information on me already.

Apple has been pretty adamant that all your data either stays on-device, or is encrypted or anonimized. They have positioned themselves in the market as "the company that doesn't harvest your data."

If you're using Google as your search engine, then you're already plugged into the matrix. 🤣

 

[machenryr]

I'm well aware of the googling harvesting. No. I am not using that or their version of Siri.

 

[benwiggy]

What is your actual concern about the way that Apple uses your data, given what they have published about how they use it?

 

[machenryr]

What is your actual concern about the way that Apple uses your data, given what they have published about how they use it?

I don't believe them. Or that the access to data is always there, so what may happen in the future may change their policy. But more than that I don't like the dumb down. Instead of learning how to write better the tendency will be to let AI do it. It's a great research tool. The promise that I dreamed about when I was a kid with the Weekly Reader circa 1966. But when I was a teacher it was bad enough, before AI is what it is even now. Students would bring stupid papers meant to fool the teacher, but there were tell tale signs. Random example - A group called Clouds of Joy would come back in various alterations - Billows of Happiness. I think the human brain is worth working on to develop it. More book reading. More actual writing. The leisure class has infiltrated all strata of society making us all equally stupid. In terms of mining data that ship sailed long ago. But I don't want to hold the door open any more than I have.

 

[johnprogrammer]

I use only ChatGPT on the web, to ask questions. I do not use AI for anything else.

I think using AI to create summaries, detailed texts, etc. for us, will make us stupid.

 

[okkibs]

Wouldn't know how effective turning off is as I never turned it on. Thankfully it does not force enable. I have used chatgpt previously but in precisely those situations where I could really have used it where other internet searches didn't help it was infuriating.

Last time I needed it to find someone who is in the public eye and has information like their birth date on wikipedia but I only knew their first name (but not how to spell it) and some trivia about their life. This was after over an hour of fruitlessly searching for all search terms I could come up with on various platforms. The AI replied it wasn't permitted to look up individuals and instead suggested various search terms I could try out. Gee thanks what did you think I spent the last hour on?

I did end up finding the person but AI wasn't of any help. And if I can easily google what I'm looking for then I have no need for chatgpt either.

It's been somewhat useful recommending me TV to watch and so on but even then you can tell it doesn't really understand what I want. I had it make up wrong information and then when I asked it to correct that it changed that into something different that was completely made up yet again. Feels like satire of what such a tool is supposed to do.

 

[ChrisA]

What do you gain by turning it off on your MacBook Pro? Seems like it is extra steps to turn something off that you can just not new. I don't get pop ups saying USE AI!!!, I would never even know there was AI on my MacBook Pro without reading about it.

Do you use the email app? Those summaries are "AI"
Do you read the text transcriptions of voicemail on your phone, that is "AI"

 

[adrianlondon]

Do you use the email app? Those summaries are "AI"
Do you read the text transcriptions of voicemail on your phone, that is "AI"

I use the email app. I don't get any summaries and don't need them (I guess because I have AI off).

I get voicemail transcriptions on my phone, which I find useful. It's an iPhone 11 with no AI.