Save 7GB Storage Per Device by Disabling Apple Intelligence

[msackey]

I want to put a plug in for privacy. Without intentionally building these things in from the start, it is VERY VERY difficult to backtrack and do them when a technology matures.*

So while I don't know if Apple's technical approach is the right one, I want give them a lot of credit for building privacy into their AI right from the start -- and along with however they "struggle" with that as they build up their AI tools.

Privacy issues were not a great concern when the internet was first built, so you have lots of infrastructure that was NOT built with privacy in mind. So, what happens is, most of us are using unsecured email protocols!! And, it's clunky and often not user friendly when you want to make privacy and confidentiality a key part of your email process. Do you remember back in the day when public PGP keys were in some email signatures? Well, as much as I'm a geeky, and while I kinda understood that process, it was clunky enough AND also where no one in my network of friends and workers use PGP or even thought about privacy that I too ended up never really adopting it. That's just one example of how clunky setting up privacy is for emails with others when the protocol itself wasn't developed from day one to have privacy in mind.

So again, kudos to Apple.

Sure, using ChatGPT directly with ChatGPT may provide better immediate results etc. What "you" (or others who don't think much of these things) are missing are the known and unknown downstream consequences.

Even today when digital communications and internet technology is so common, "we" (general "we") are all enamored by the glitz of immediate results and responses without understanding the full consequences of what and how we are selling ourselves.

Nope. We as the general public HAVE TO push back and demand privacy and confidentiality MUST be built into new technology and technology cannot and should not consider privacy and confidentiality as afterthoughts.

[*] This is a footnote to say that what I mean by "very very difficult to backtrack" and build privacy and confidentiality back in is to say that it is hard to build that in such a way that either people adopt them, is not clunky, and doesn't have glaring holes. Holes will always exist, but fewer of certain issues certainly will exist when something is intentionally built from the ground up with a particular idea in mind.

Edit: And thank you for reading what are my sort of rambling thoughts. I'm sure if I took the time I could edit down that mess up there

 

[switz]

Getting the max memory in my iPhone and iPads means program size is a non-issue. I tend to get the 4TB SSD option for Macs and this is a non- issue there as well.

I see the 7GB eating up folks iCloud backup storage space and Apple is sitting there willing to sell upgraded storage for lots more money. That is the cheese that binds.

I doubt there is a way to preclude backing up that Apple AI stuff if it is operational on a device.

 

[nathansz]

If 73 percent of iPhone users say they don’t want AI, why should they have to deal with a hit on storage?

nowhere does that survey actually say that 73% of iPhone users don't want AI

seems you you've fallen for a second-hand click bait headline and taken it as fact

 

[NewOldStock]

How much % of this is not even Ai?
Sounds good though just call everything Ai driven who is to know these things.

 

[Biro]

that headline is just as click-baity and misleading as this one was

Only to you.

 

[filchermcurr]

If you're curious about exactly how much space it's taking up on macOS, you can use the Terminal command: du -csh /System/Library/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM*


com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM_GenerativeModels is the language models. (The asset specifier is: com.apple.gm.server.instruct_server_v1.friendly_tone.generic)

com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM_Visual is for image generation. (The asset specifier is: com.apple.fm.visual.image_diffusion_v1.personalized_illustration)


On my M1 Macbook Air the total for the two is about 11 GB. (Interestingly, the 'Storage' section in System Settings doesn't seem to account for both. Just the LLM.) Turning off Apple Intelligence doesn't seem to delete it right away. I don't know when / if it gets purged, but you can delete it manually from recovery mode if you really need to. I've done it many times to test various things and, if required, it will just re-download the data.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

But 7GB out of 64GB or even 128GB is quite a bit. If 73 percent of iPhone users say they don’t want AI, why should they have to deal with a hit on storage?

Well, they can always remove it.
it makes no sense to buy a 64GB or 128GB since 2022.
In many cases, people buy these thinking they will never need the storage, then when they need it they cry about not having enough. It’s always the same story.
7 GB allocated for Apple Intelligence is not bloatware like some people wrote above. They have no understanding on how it works, and the amount of data that needs to be stored locally to be able to do some work offline.

 

[HazeAndHahmahneez]

Yeah clickbait title.

Anyhow, fortunately Cleanup in Photos works just fine with Apple Intelligence turned off. Note the detected car on the right.

View attachment 2476724

This confirmed true??

 

[navaira]

If you're curious about exactly how much space it's taking up on macOS, you can use the Terminal command: du -csh /System/Library/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM*

du: /System/Library/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM_GenerativeModels: Operation not permitted
du: /System/Library/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM_Overrides: Operation not permitted
du: /System/Library/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM_Visual: Operation not permitted
0B total

(I tried with sudo as well)

Does that mean they’re gone, or that the operation is not actually performed and that’s why the result is zero? *checks* About 9.5 GB. :/

 

[theeaglesfan005]

Apple Intelligence is only taking up 6.4GB on my iPhone 16 Pro Max

 

[New Mexico Bob]

I just don't see Apple Intelligence doing anything for me on my iP16PU. What is it even up to? Siri is still crumby and I see nothing new.

 

[nottorp]

Why Apple makes AI an all-or-nothing thing is insane. There are a few features that I could find helpful, but why can't I just toggle them instead of EVERYTHING? (I know, I know, they want to showcase the 'awesome power' of AI to users)

No it's stupidity. Other features are also all or nothing. For example you can't turn off parts of handoff or whatever they call it separately. If you want to be able to answer calls from your laptop you have to live with the shared clipboard.

Two completely unrelated features under the same checkbox. Incidentally one that I want and one that I don't, because I use multiple apple devices for different things and I don't need the code snippets i copy on my desktop to get on my laptop and accidentally get pasted in some whatsapp group...

 

[QCassidy352]

I disabled it on iPad and Mac but enabled on iPhone. The only features I like are ChatGPT integration with Siri and visual intelligence, both of which I only use on iPhone.

 

[nathansz]

Only to you.

the headline completely misrepresents the contents of the survey that it is referring to

 

[Lizzard899]

This doesn’t use iCloud storage does it? I can see that adding up.

The way I read the article I would say yes. Ios 18 already messed up my icloud storage. It doubled in size for no reason. Its getting better but prob wont be fixed for a while I have iphone se 2022

You may be right. But, in all fairness, the current SE won’t run AI. We’ll have to see how much storage the SE that’s due in a few months will offer. And, as an aside, my wife’s M1 iPad Air has only 64GB of storage. So this is an issue for her.

I have the se 2022 and it doesnt have ai but ios 18 def destroyed my iphone storage and icloud storage for no reason. Ive done nothing to it. The icloud storage doubled in size. The iphone storage just isnt collabrating the correct number. Its getting better with each ios 18 update though

 

[Mousse]

7 GB allocated for Apple Intelligence is not bloatware like some people wrote above.

Bloatware is unwanted, preinstalled software. How else would you define bloatware? For people who do not want AI, Apple Intelligence is the very definition of bloatware.🧐

For all we know, 7GB is the initial storage used. That number could very well inflate substantially over time. Look at all the apps on you phone whose cache uses 10x-20x storage than the app itself.

They have no understanding on how it works,

Because they believe it doesn't work.😁

and the amount of data that needs to be stored locally to be able to do some work offline.

Ah yes, more bloat they do not want.😑

 

[Lizzard899]

Why care about cache? The data is deleted automatically if more data needs to be stored.

I always wondered about cache, I always wonder if the number in system status where the cache and logs are is it suppose to be a big number or small number? I think mine is at 6 something

 

[SAIRUS]

Apple needs to stop releasing stuff in beta. I know getting to production and return on investment is key, but maybe work better? Less micromanagement? I dunno what is going on there.

 

[surferfb]

Apple needs to stop releasing stuff in beta. I know getting to production and return on investment is key, but maybe work better? Less micromanagement? I dunno what is going on there.

I don't disagree, but I remain convinced that Apple originally planned Apple Intelligence to be an iOS 19 feature that they needed to reveal early because the media and shareholder pressure of "Apple is behind in AI" and "Apple doesn't have an AI story" was getting to much for even Apple to deal with and they were worried it was going to start significantly impacting share price.

 

[Lizzard899]

Apple needs to stop releasing stuff in beta. I know getting to production and return on investment is key, but maybe work better? Less micromanagement? I dunno what is going on there.

Thats how they release software so that they can fix it in the betas.

 

[nathansz]

For all we know, 7GB is the initial storage us

7GB isn’t even the initial amount of storage used.

It is the amount of free space required for installation

 

[BurgDog]

I only have 24GB on my Mac mini. 7GB is a significant portion of that so I turned it off.

 

[nathansz]

I only have 24GB on my Mac mini. 7GB is a significant portion of that so I turned it off.

I think you are mixing up ram and storage

 

[bmark]

7GB for Apple Intelligence? That’s a ridiculous amount of bloatware!

 

[Just_Kevin]

I still want more done on device vs cloud servers with less strict privacy policies. Really, the only AI I want is a better functioning Siri to control the phone and features of apps on the phone.