With the release of macOS 27 Golden Gate, Apple removed the toggle to disable Apple Intelligence, so there is no official way to remove its models from your Mac. But given that these models consume 12GB of storage (and sometimes more), it was only a matter of time before someone came up with a tool to strip them out of the operating system.
A new open-source project called RemoveMacAI is the first such tool, and unsurprisingly, it's being warmly embraced by Mac-using AI skeptics. Hosted on GitHub, the command-line utility uses a script to delete the Apple Intelligence models from your Mac and prevent them from being downloaded again, even across OS updates.
Once they are gone from your Mac, the following features are no longer available: all Siri-related AI features, Writing Tools, Genmoji, Image Playground, ChatGPT integration, summaries, smart replies, inline predictions, Photos Clean Up, Spatial Photos, and Xcode predictive completion.
Evidently, for plenty of Mac users, the loss of these features is a small price to pay for the 12GB of storage space that is freed up. Some users have even reported getting back upwards of 20GB after running the tool, so it seems that Apple's models can grow over time.
You can check how much storage Apple Intelligence takes up on your Mac by going into System Settings ➝ General and clicking Storage. Click the encircled "i" next to macOS to get a figure. If you don't like what you see, the RemoveMacAI is there to help.
If you run the tool and decide you'd rather have Apple Intelligence back, it's possible to use the same script to revert the changes. Just be aware that the utility has nothing to do with Apple, and if you're not comfortable with the idea of using Terminal, it's probably not for you. You can find more info on the tool's GitHub page.
