Are You Over AI? How to Completely Disable Apple Intelligence With a Few Clicks

Tired of feeling like every tech company is shoving AI features into your face, whether you asked for them or not? That fatigue is understandable, especially if those features start cluttering up your daily iPhone or Mac experience. And you aren't alone in asking: How can I turn Apple Intelligence off entirely? While Apple's approach, dubbed Apple Intelligence, is currently less invasive than rivals such as Google's Gemini, you might still prefer to keep all that algorithmic assistance at arm's length. The good news is you don't have to tolerate it. It's actually very simple to disable the entire feature suite or switch off individual AI tools you don't want. We're here to show you exactly how to do it. See also: Did a well-meaning friend send you a message about Apple Intelligence possibly reading your private information? I explain what's actually going on . Don't miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source. Why turn off Apple Intelligence in the first place? Since the first Apple Intelligence features rolled out last year in iOS 18.1, some people have opted out of the new technology. Tools such as Image Playground , Genmoji and message summaries can use up to 7GB of your device's internal storage -- a sizable chunk, especially if you tend to run against the upper limit of its free space. Even if storage is not an issue, you just may not be interested in Apple's set of AI features. A new CNET survey finds that just 19% of US smartphone owners are choosing to upgrade their devices to take advantage of new AI features. And a recent ZDNET/Aberdeen survey reveals that the majority of US adults say they will not use most AI features, and just 8% would consider paying extra for them. Some AI features are more welcome than others, with 58% of respondents saying using AI for photo editing would be valuable. Or, honestly, you may not want to deal with features that are creating inaccurate summaries or that can be replicated without Apple Intelligence . The trainer killed someone? (Earlier iOS 18 updates re-enabled Apple Intelligence automatically even if you had turned it off, but as of iOS 18.4, the setting is honored.) Is Apple Intelligence really ready to be on by default? I'm not an AI crank -- I appreciate features such as notification summaries and the Clean Up tool in the Photos app. And yet, Apple Intelligence is also a work in progress, an evolving set of features that Apple is heavily hyping while gradually developing. I wouldn't hold it against you if you wanted to not be distracted or feel like you're doing Apple's testing for them (that's what the developer and public betas are for). Remember that Apple Intelligence works only on the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone Air , iPhone 16, iPhone 16E, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro, or M-series Macs and iPads, plus the newest iPad mini....

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