No Option for Apple Intelligence on Mac OS 27, iMac M1

Software
1

I have a 2021 iMac running OS 27.
When I go to Siri in System Settings, there’s no option to activate Apple Intelligence nor to join the beta waitlist.
I believe everything on my machine is set to English and location in the US.
Is the option for Apple Intelligence going to magically show up one day or do I need to change more settings on my machine?

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2

I got into Siri AI on my phone within 24 hours of installing iOS 27 & requesting it. I didn’t even request it on my M1 Air and it was there when I upgraded to macOS 27 a few days after I did the phone.

Is your Apple Account set up with the region in the US?

3

I have the same issue: M1 MacBook Air and no option for Siri Intelligence. I’m not bothered though, from what I am reading, it’s no great shakes.

4

It showed up immediately on my M1, so it does work with the chipset. Sorry I cannot help more!

5

How much RAM does everyone have? I suspect that those who are not seeing the option have less RAM. I haven’t updated my M1 yet but have a vague recollection that it would not be available on all M1s. Only those over a certain amount of RAM. Unfortunately, I don’t recall what the threshold was or where I got that from.

6

While your location is set to the US and your Machine is set to English. Where are you based, and what is the geography of the AppleID attached to the device?

7

16GB on my M1 Air and just had it look for something in my local data this morning.

I can see an 8GB device getting a sliver of the new functionality at best.

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8

I’m curious, what do you mean by “sliver of the new functionality”?

My understanding is that only the expressive voices and improved dictation require an M3 or later with 12GB of RAM. Everything else in Siri AI is available on any Apple Silicon Mac. Apple has two on-device models; the larger one only runs on Macs with 12GB or more. When a request is too complex for the local model, Siri AI hands it off to Private Cloud Compute, so the features are essentially the same on an 8GB Mac. The main difference is that more requests go to the cloud rather than staying on-device.