RemoveMacAI uses a reversible profile to disable Apple Intelligence on macOS 27

Developer Om Lahore has released RemoveMacAI, an open-source command-line utility for Apple-silicon Macs running macOS 27. It disables Apple Intelligence features, asks the operating system to release downloaded models and can reverse its changes.

RemoveMacAI addresses a control gap in macOS 27. Apple’s guidance separates the available controls across Siri, individual apps, notifications and Screen Time instead of providing one master Apple Intelligence switch. Lahore says turning those features off individually also leaves downloaded models on disk.

RemoveMacAI asks Apple’s asset service to release those models, but that may not free space immediately. macOS deletes the underlying files on its own schedule, so the Storage pane may continue counting them for a time. The amount of space recovered varies, and no fixed figure has been independently established.

The utility first displays the Mac’s current state and asks for confirmation. It then opens System Settings, where the user must approve a configuration profile. According to the project documentation, the profile applies Apple restriction keys, forces settings that lack a restriction key and redirects attempts to download each removed model to a closed local port. The process keeps System Integrity Protection enabled and does not directly modify files under /System.

By default, RemoveMacAI turns off Siri, Writing Tools, Genmoji, Image Playground, the ChatGPT extension, several summary and smart-reply features, inline text predictions, Spatial Photos, Photos Clean Up and Xcode predictive code completion. The developer says it also stops apps that use Apple’s on-device Foundation Models framework, the Use Model action in Shortcuts, Visual Intelligence and natural-language editing in Calendar.

Dictation remains available because it uses a separate setting and its speech models are not removed, according to the developer. A --keep option can leave named features enabled.

Apple’s device-management documentation confirms that managed configurations can control features including Genmoji, Image Playground, Writing Tools, Visual Intelligence and per-app intelligence features. Apple’s legacy restrictions schema marks some older Siri and Apple Intelligence keys as deprecated in macOS 26.4 in favor of declarative configurations. The available evidence does not establish which generation every key in RemoveMacAI currently uses, leaving compatibility with future macOS updates unverified.

The project supports Apple-silicon Macs only. Its documentation says it was tested on macOS 27.0, requires version 0.2.3 or later on macOS 27.0.1 and does not support macOS 26 or earlier. Release 0.2.3 changed model-size detection after per-set status incorrectly showed zero for installed models on some Macs, causing earlier versions to remove nothing.

The software was not independently executed or audited for this story, so its documented behavior and claims that it makes no network requests and collects no data remain attributed to the developer. If model removal fails or cannot be confirmed, the project says the off command exits with status 1 while leaving the profile active. Its revert command removes the profile, restores previous settings and allows macOS to download models again when a restored feature needs them.