On December 11, 2024, Apple released a significant update to its newest Macintosh operating system, macOS 15 Sequoia. This release—macOS 15.2—marks the second phase of the heavily hyped Apple Intelligence features in beta form. AI features available in macOS 15.2 include multiple integrations with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Image Playground.
At this time, Apple Intelligence is not enabled by default. Turning it on requires enabling it within System Settings and then waiting for an indeterminant time until it activates. Apple Intelligence is only available on macOS systems with Apple Silicon processors. A note that macOS 15.2 is available for all Sequoia-compatible Macs, and includes security updates and a few functionality additions unrelated to Apple Intelligence.
Information Systems & Computing (ISC) suggests that administrators of institutionally-owned systems consider restricting Apple Intelligence using tools such as Jamf and that users of individually-owned systems carefully consider whether they wish to run beta software on their macOS systems. A reminder that all University AI and data guidance and policies apply to the use of Apple Intelligence, including the Statement on Guidance for the University of Pennsylvania Community on Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence and the Penn Data Risk Classification.
Additional Background
The release of macOS 15.2 is accompanied by iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2, both of which have matching Apple Intelligence capabilities. Apple’s hardware requirements for Apple Intelligence on mobile devices remain relatively steep, especially for iPhones. Six current iPhones (15 Pro, 15 Pro Max, 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro, 16 Pro Max) meet the requirement, while only relatively recent iPad Pros (2021 on) and iPad Airs (2022 on) are supported.
Management tools such as Jamf and InTune can restrict the use of Apple Intelligence on institutional systems, and those options have increased with macOS 15.2. Apple's Platform Deployment Guide lists newly available MDM restrictions relevant to Apple Intelligence. For the short term, administrators can delay the update to macOS 15.1/15.2, but blocking the update will age poorly (because macOS 15.1/15.2 includes security updates) and will not be fully effective (because new Mac systems are shipping with macOS 15.1 now and will soon start shipping with 15.2). For more details on how to build and deploy relevant Jamf configuration profiles, please contact ISC Client Care at help@isc.upenn.edu.
Apple’s AI implementation is unique—at least in December 2024. Basic functionality is onboard the device, aided by the low-power neural processing units (NPUs) embedded in recent Apple Silicon and Apple’s OpenELM model. If the AI need exceeds the onboard capability, the device can call on either Apple’s AI service (Private Cloud Compute) or, in some cases, third-party AI services. Only OpenAI’s ChatGPT is currently available, but ISC expects others to follow, with Google’s Gemini likely next.
Penn’s LinkedIn Learning service offers many technical training courses for University constituents, including macOS Sequoia Essential Training.