Apple Intelligence for macOS at your organization

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Apple is in the process of rolling out its AI features (playfully branded "Apple Intelligence") since the release of macOS 15 (Sequoia) and iOS/iPadOS 18. As individual features become available with every point update, it can be easy to lose track of what has released and what's coming soon. Most features are neat little "nice-to-haves", while some warrant a deeper look to see if they're appropriate for business use.

Apple Intelligence offers a slew of interesting features for Mac - check out Apple's guide for a deeper dive:

The most important consideration to think about first is privacy. When it comes to Apple Intelligence queries:

  • As much processing as possible is handled on-device, not requiring internet access for basic queries. This keeps most queries securely offline.

  • Queries that need to access the internet (off-device) for resolution are handled via Private Cloud Compute, an open-source platform Apple has created and is under regular scrutiny to ensure it's as secure as they claim it is. As far as we're aware, no extant vulnerabilities or exploitations of the platform have been revealed and it can be considered secure

  • Queries that cannot be handled by Private Cloud Compute can be rerouted to ChatGPT. From Apple's support document about the feature: 

    If you access the ChatGPT extension without an account, only your request and attachments like documents, photos, or contents of the document are sent to ChatGPT to answer your request. OpenAI does not receive any information tied to your Apple Account. Your IP address is obscured from ChatGPT, but your general location is provided. OpenAI must process your request solely for the purpose of fulfilling it and not store your request or any responses it provides unless required under applicable laws. OpenAI also must not use your request to improve or train its models. When you are signed in, your ChatGPT account settings and OpenAI’s data privacy policies will apply. 

 

For on-device processing and Private Cloud Compute, things are looking good as far as confidentiality and security. If you have yet to adopt a stance on the use of commercial AI products, now would be the time to start having those conversations. Aside from privacy concerns, you may work in an environment where the use of these tools could have other unforeseen consequences. In some circumstances, the possible risks of using AI-generated text and images may outweigh the convenience of these tools.

If your organization has a policy against using ChatGPT or other AI tools, Apple has been rolling out administrative controls to tamp down on how Apple Intelligence functions. As of macOS 15.2 (December 2024), here are the controls administrators can apply to your Addigy-enrolled Macs:

  • Allow Writing Tools (enable/disables Apple Intelligence writing tools)
  • Allow External Intelligence Integrations (enable/disable the use of external, cloud-based intelligence services with Siri, like ChatGPT)
  • Allow External Intelligence Integrations Sign In (forces external intelligence providers into "anonymous" mode. If a user is already signed in to an intelligence provider, applying this restriction will cause them to be signed out when the next request is attempted)
  • Allow Personalized Handwriting Results (enable/disable Apple Intelligence handwriting recognition and reproduction for Notes and Math Notes)

We're expecting additional controls to be released over the coming year as Apple launches more features for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. Should you need to disable certain Apple Intelligence features on your Macs in the meantime, the controls live in System Settings:

Keep an eye out for new software updates as more features become available for public use!

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