WWDC Wishlist fulfilled - A free large-language model built into iOS and macOS
On April 24, 2023, I wrote:
As an Apple developer, one thing I would love to see at WWDC is a free large-language model built into iOS and macOS. Ship GPT-whatever with the OS and let third-party apps call into it for free.
[…]
I don’t want to include a multi-gigabyte model file in a web extension. Better for Apple to put it in the OS once and share it across all apps.
[…]
A free and locally run LLM would be good for Apple users’ privacy as well.
Fast forward to 2025, and here we are:
The Foundation Models framework provides access to Apple’s on-device large language model that powers Apple Intelligence to help you perform intelligent tasks specific to your use case.
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The on-device model excels at a diverse range of text generation tasks, like summarization, entity extraction, text understanding, refinement, dialog for games, generating creative content, and more.
I’m excited to see what other developers do with a free on-device LLM. I won’t use it, though. 2023 me wanted it for my web extension to autofill login codes from your email inbox. Alas, Apple built that first.