I don’t think that’s unpopular at all. Local AI is the only AI future worth pursuing.

No.

Same here. Local is not the problem. Control is.

I’m curious what this tool does that is different from turning off Apple Intelligence in the Settings because they already give you some degree of control.

But not curious enough to read the second sentence of this article.

I think the article is not being 100% accurate. They kind of conflated Apple Intelligence and Siri, you can turn off Siri still.

Disk space it seems.

The problem is there is no single switch to turn it off. You have to go to each nook and cranny in the settings and toggle a switch. And if you miss anything, that 20 something gigabytes of space doesn’t free up. I’m all for local AI features, but it should be a one toggle switch to turn it off or remove it.

The reddit user featured in the article had to create a script to automate it and keep it off.

You can’t turn it off anymore in Golden Gate. It is a mandatory download (in countries where it is supported) now.

You can still disable some specific AI-related features, but you can’t block the models entirely.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, that’s a ton of disk space, and Apple is notoriously chintzy when it comes to storage. On the other hand, I do want the default to be local-only models, and giving developers easy access will make that the path of least resistance. Most of my problems with LLMs don’t apply to moderately-sized local models.

chintzy when it comes to storage

Across the line, the cost to get a step up from 512gb to 1TB is $300, and on top of that, 1TB to 2TB is an additional $500, and you’re forever locked in. If that AI model increases in size, yikes.

Even for the off-device stuff it usually gives a direct answer, without fluffing up the user, and almost always mentions double checking validity or speaking to a professional for advice (such as medical advice).

I don’t need to tell people here how terrible AI like ChatGPT is at confidently misleading people and pretending to be a users friend.