How to completely remove Apple Intelligence (from a MacBook Pro)

Today, Jan. 15, 2025, I received a systems pop-up telling me it is time to experience the new apple personal intelligence system. I am not interested. I want to continue to rely on my own intelligence. How do I get rid of this repeatedly nagging me to update like my iPhone does about its updates.

doris50 wrote:

Today, Jan. 15, 2025, I received a systems pop-up telling me it is time to experience the new apple personal intelligence system. I am not interested. I want to continue to rely on my own intelligence. How do I get rid of this repeatedly nagging me to update like my iPhone does about its updates.

Check to see if you have notifications for the Tips app enabled.

I will contact Apple and hope they can help. Thank you. On another note, I have contacted apple twice about how to keep the monumental amount of unsolicited pornographic emails I get daily from coming into my mail. They really didn't have any fix for it. The amount of wasted time spent to "block" them got ridiculous so I just funnel all of them to my junk folder and delete the whole batch every day or two. Actually "block" doesn't seem to work any better in apple mail than "unsubscribe" does by going to the website - it actually seems to have a reverse effect. I have to watch though, because sometimes a bill is sent to junk instead of to my inbox and I end up being charged a late fee by missing the notice. One thing I really miss in mail is the ability to to "bounce" unsolicited/unwanted mail back to the sender - if we could still do that maybe we wouldn't get 5-10 or more of the same harrasing ads, etc. in a week.

doris50 wrote:

One thing I really miss in mail is the ability to to "bounce" unsolicited/unwanted mail back to the sender - if we could still do that maybe we wouldn't get 5-10 or more of the same harrasing ads, etc. in a week.

Bouncing spam emails is generally not helpful because it can actually harm your sender reputation as it signals to email service providers that you might be a spammer, even if you're not, due to the high likelihood of invalid addresses associated with spam campaigns. And it didn't stop spam.

The reason you get more spam now is not because the useless bounce feature was removed. It's because there are more spammers sending more spam.

Never, ever reply to junk mail. It just confirms there's someone at the other end and you get moved to live lists and will get more junk. Don't ever click on unsubscribe links in junk mail because you've no idea what sort of website you'll end up at.

Who is your mail provider? Most mail services have multiple levels of junk mail filters and if yours does then try upping it a notch.

You can also create rules in Mac Mail to get rid of junk. For example I've been getting a ton of mail telling me my McAfee subscription has lapsed or that they've found a virus. I've never used McAfee so I've created a rule to delete all mails with McAfee in the subject.

You can prevent bills and genuine mails from people and organizations you know from going to your junk box by making sure their address is in Contacts and you've ticked the appropriate box in Mail/Settings/Junk Mail. You can also create rules and/or smart mailboxes to move or display emails if they are from, say family, friends, etc. Just put your family in a list in contacts and you can create a rule or smart mailbox based on that list.

Inaccurate statement. My iPad software was just updated and the unrequested, unwanted Apple Intelligence was installed TURNED ON. I had to turn it on. I hate when Apple ASSUMES you want activated or installed every little thing they come up with. I don’t appreciate it and I resent it.

Not_a_fan9999 wrote:

Inaccurate statement. My iPad software was just updated and the unrequested, unwanted Apple Intelligence was installed TURNED ON. I had to turn it on. I hate when Apple ASSUMES you want activated or installed every little thing they come up with. I don’t appreciate it and I resent it.

You are likely responding to a post which was written before iOS/iPadOS 18.3 was released and was likely at that time quite accurate. With iOS 18.3 Apple Intelligence was turned on for devices, which had not turned it on previously. And yes, as you've learned, you can just as easily turn it off if you don't want to use.

We have to accept that Apple Intelligence is baked into iOS and will be enabled by default going forward. But that doesn't mean anyone HAS to use it as it is easy to turn off if someone wants. Apple owns iOS, not any of us. We just have a license to use the software. It is that way with every company you use an operating system from.

Not_a_fan9999 wrote:

Inaccurate statement. My iPad software was just updated and the unrequested, unwanted Apple Intelligence was installed TURNED ON. I had to turn it on. I hate when Apple ASSUMES you want activated or installed every little thing they come up with. I don’t appreciate it and I resent it.

It was an accurate statement a month ago when it was posted. In MacOS 15.3 it defaulted to On.

In general, when Apple adds a feature on any device it defaults to ON, because if it didn’t the 99% of users who never read release notes would not know about the feature.

Not_a_fan9999 wrote:

Inaccurate statement. My iPad software was just updated and the unrequested, unwanted Apple Intelligence was installed TURNED ON. I had to turn it on. I hate when Apple ASSUMES you want activated or installed every little thing they come up with. I don’t appreciate it and I resent it.

You replied to an old post that was accurate at the time. With the recent update, it is on by default and if you do not want it, then shut it off. It really is that simple. Nothing to get excited about.

Mac Jim ID wrote:

You replied to an old post that was accurate at the time. With the recent update, it is on by default and if you do not want it, then shut it off. It really is that simple. Nothing to get excited about.

At least they were actually reading earlier posts...

I totally agree. The Apple Intelligence offer was also "placed" automatically in my system settings by Apple. I had already asked on this forum if anyone knew how to get rid of it. I had no intention of accessing it; however, it installed on the next system update. I am still upset about that and I, too, want it off my computer.

doris50 wrote:

As for (2), I haven't run across anything that tells me how to avoid using it.

It sounds as if you're asking how to turn Apple Intelligence off on your iPhone. Go to Settings>Apple Intelligence & Siri>Apple Intelligence and turn it off.

doris50 wrote:

Blocking doesn't seem effective at all in getting rid of spam emails either.

No, it's not. Nothing gets rid of spam. The best you can do is have it all diverted to your spam folder so you don't need to look at it.

Until sending spam stops being a profitable way for the less than ethical to make money or steal information, it will continue.

Just wanting to tell Apple I don't need/want Apple Intelligence. I turned it off, but it is still consuming 9GB.

I don't see what it will ever do for me. Summarize email? Who writes long emails anymore. Auto-generated Cliff-notes? Add appointments to calendar because it is such a burden! I do like the photo search stuff, like find all the burrito photos. But I can live without any of it.

MuZenEpsilon wrote:

Just wanting to tell Apple I don't need/want Apple Intelligence. I turned it off, but it is still consuming 9GB.

I don't see what it will ever do for me. Summarize email? Who writes long emails anymore. Auto-generated Cliff-notes? Add appointments to calendar because it is such a burden! I do like the photo search stuff, like find all the burrito photos. But I can live without any of it.

You aren't speaking with Apple here. This is a user to user only forum, which Apple doesn't actively participate, nor read for user feedback. If you want to tell Apple your thoughts, use this link --> Product Feedback - Apple