Apple Intelligence, a feature that is most notable for its extremely bad summarization of texts and notifications, is quietly occupying more and more of your unused storage space. As spotted by 9to5Mac, Apple Intelligence has gone from requiring 4GB of available storage at launch back in September 2024 to 7GB just four months later—nearly doubling the amount of space it takes up on a device.
The jump in storage needs first appeared with the introduction of iOS 18.2 and macOS Sequoia 15.2, which was first made available to the public in early December and expanded on the first set of Apple Intelligence features that debuted with iOS 18.1 and Sequoia 15.1. The December update introduced two generative AI features: Image Playground, which creates images based off user prompts, and Genmoji, which allows users to create their own custom emoji.
Part of the reason these features require so much space is that Apple Intelligence uses on-device processing, so the models that power the features have to be stored on the device. It’s also why only devices that are equipped with the company’s own chipsets, either M1 or A17 or higher, get access to the features—while other chipsets likely could handle the processing, Apple wants its AI functionality to run as smoothly as possible.
While on-device processing offers some additional privacy (though, surprise, Apple is still scanning your photos and other content to train AI), it also means that every time a new Apple Intelligence feature gets rolled out, your storage space is likely to shrink. The company is planning to give Siri an AI overhaul soon, and Apple will likely continue to lean into AI for future operating system updates, so expect that it’ll just keep filling up your available storage space for the foreseeable future.
What makes the Apple Intelligence creep even worse is the fact that next to no one is actually all that enthused about using these features. Earlier this year, a survey conducted by SellCell found that 73% of iPhone owners who have tried Apple Intelligence said it adds “little to no value” to their phone experience.
Perhaps that will change as Apple introduces new features that people actually want to engage with, but it’ll be fascinating to see if the trade-offs prove worth it. Users have already started to complain about battery drain associated with Apple Intelligence operations. For now, it sure seems like Apple Intelligence’s main capability is providing incorrect summaries of news articles, and all it costs you is an increasingly large chunk of your limited storage space and the need to charge your device more often. Not sure that’s a great value proposition.
