At WWDC25 we launched a new type of Lab event for the developer community - Group Labs. A Group Lab is a panel Q&A designed for a large audience of developers. Group Labs are a unique opportunity for the community to submit questions directly to a panel of Apple engineers and designers. Here are the highlights from the WWDC25 Group Lab for Machine Learning and AI Frameworks. What are you most excited about in the Foundation Models framework? The Foundation Models framework provides access to an on-device Large Language Model (LLM), enabling entirely on-device processing for intelligent features. This allows you to build features such as personalized search suggestions and dynamic NPC generation in games. The combination of guided generation and streaming capabilities is particularly exciting for creating delightful animations and features with reliable output. The seamless integration with SwiftUI and the new design material Liquid Glass is also a major advantage. When should I still bring my own LLM via CoreML? It's generally recommended to first explore Apple's built-in system models and APIs, including the Foundation Models framework, as they are highly optimized for Apple devices and cover a wide range of use cases. However, Core ML is still valuable if you need more control or choice over the specific model being deployed, such as customizing existing system models or augmenting prompts. Core ML provides the tools to get these models on-device, but you are responsible for model distribution and updates. Should I migrate PyTorch code to MLX? MLX is an open-source, general-purpose machine learning framework designed for Apple Silicon from the ground up. It offers a familiar API, similar to PyTorch, and supports C, C++, Python, and Swift. MLX emphasizes unified memory, a key feature of Apple Silicon hardware, which can improve performance. It's recommended to try MLX and see if its programming model and features better suit your application's needs. MLX shines when working with state-of-the-art, larger models. Can I test Foundation Models in Xcode simulator or device? Yes, you can use the Xcode simulator to test Foundation Models use cases. However, your Mac must be running macOS Tahoe. You can test on a physical iPhone running iOS 18 by connecting it to your Mac and running Playgrounds or live previews directly on the device. Which on-device models will be supported? any open source models? The Foundation Models framework currently supports Apple's first-party models only. This allows for platform-wide optimizations, improving battery life and reducing latency. While Core ML can be used to integrate open-source models, it's generally recommended to first explore the built-in system models and APIs provided by Apple, including those in the Vision, Natural Language, and Speech frameworks, as they are highly optimized for Apple devices. For frontier models, MLX can run very large models. How often will the Foundational Model be updated? How do we test for stability when the model is updated? The Foundation Model will be updated in sync with operating system updates. You can test your app against new model versions during the beta period by downloading the beta OS and running your app. It is highly recommended to create an "eval set" of golden prompts and responses to evaluate the performance of your features as the model changes or as you tweak your prompts. Report any unsatisfactory or satisfactory cases using Feedback Assistant. Which on-device model/API can I use to extract text data from images such as: nutrition labels, ingredient lists, cashier receipts, etc? Thank you. The Vision framework offers the RecognizeDocumentRequest which is specifically designed for these use cases. It not only recognizes text in images but also provides the structure of the document, such as rows in a receipt or the layout of a nutrition label. It can also identify data like phone numbers, addresses, and prices. What is the context window for the model? What are max tokens in and max tokens out? The context window for the Foundation Model is 4,096 tokens. The split between input and output tokens is flexible. For example, if you input 4,000 tokens, you'll have 96 tokens remaining for the output. The API takes in text, converting it to tokens under the hood. When estimating token count, a good rule of thumb is 3-4 characters per token for languages like English, and 1 character per token for languages like Japanese or Chinese. Handle potential errors gracefully by asking for shorter prompts or starting a new session if the token limit is exceeded. Is there a rate limit for Foundation Models API that is limited by power or temperature condition on the iPhone? Yes, there are rate limits, particularly when your app is in the background. A budget is allocated for background app usage, but exceeding it will result in rate-limiting errors. In the foreground, there is no rate limit unless the device is under heavy load (e.g., camera open, game mode). The system dynamically balances performance, battery life, and thermal conditions, which can affect the token throughput. Use appropriate quality of service settings for your tasks (e.g., background priority for background work) to help the system manage resources effectively. Do the foundation models support languages other than English? Yes, the on-device Foundation Model is multilingual and supports all languages supported by Apple Intelligence. To get the model to output in a specific language, prompt it with instructions indicating the user's preferred language using the locale API (e.g., "The user's preferred language is en-US"). Putting the instructions in English, but then putting the user prompt in the desired output language is a recommended practice. Are larger server-based models available through Foundation Models? No, the Foundation Models API currently only provides access to the on-device Large Language Model at the core of Apple Intelligence. It does not support server-side models. On-device models are preferred for privacy and for performance reasons. Is it possible to run Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) using the Foundation Models framework? Yes, it is possible to run RAG on-device, but the Foundation Models framework does not include a built-in embedding model. You'll need to use a separate database to store vectors and implement nearest neighbor or cosine distance searches. The Natural Language framework offers simple word and sentence embeddings that can be used. Consider using a combination of Foundation Models and Core ML, using Core ML for your embedding model.

In WWDC25 Metal 4 released quite excited new features for machine learning optimization, but as we all know the pytorch based on metal shader performance (mps) is the one of most important tools for Mac machine learning area.but on mps introduced website we cannot see any support information for metal4.

@Generable enum Breakfast { case waffles case pancakes case bagels case eggs } do { let session = LanguageModelSession() let userInput = "I want something sweet." let prompt = "Pick the ideal breakfast for request: (userInput)" let response = try await session.respond(to: prompt,generating: Breakfast.self) print(response.content) } catch let error { print(error) } i want to test the @Generable demo but get error with below:decodingFailure(FoundationModels.LanguageModelSession.GenerationError.Context(debugDescription: "Failed to convert text into into GeneratedContent\nText: waffles", underlyingErrors: [Swift.DecodingError.dataCorrupted(Swift.DecodingError.Context(codingPath: [], debugDescription: "The given data was not valid JSON.", underlyingError: Optional(Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=3840 "Unexpected character 'w' around line 1, column 1." UserInfo={NSJSONSerializationErrorIndex=0, NSDebugDescription=Unexpected character 'w' around line 1, column 1.})))]))

I followed below url for converting Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct model but always fails even i have 64GB of free space after downloading model from huggingface. https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/core-ml-on-device-llama Also tried with other models Llama-3.1-1B-Instruct & Llama-3.1-3B-Instruct models those are converted but while doing performance test in xcode fails for all compunits. Is there any source code to run llama models in ios app.

Hi everyone, I'm working with VNFeaturePrintObservation in Swift to compute the similarity between images. The computeDistance function allows me to calculate the distance between two images, and I want to cluster similar images based on these distances. Current Approach Right now, I'm using a brute-force approach where I compare every image against every other image in the dataset. This results in an O(n^2) complexity, which quickly becomes a bottleneck. With 5000 images, it takes around 10 seconds to complete, which is too slow for my use case. Question Are there any efficient algorithms or data structures I can use to improve performance? If anyone has experience with optimizing feature vector clustering or has suggestions on how to scale this efficiently, I'd really appreciate your insights. Thanks!

Hi all! Nice to meet you., I am planning to build an iOS application that can: Capture an image using the camera or select one from the gallery. Remove the background and keep only the detected main object. Add a border (outline) around the detected object’s shape. Apply an animation along that border (e.g., moving light or glowing effect). Include a transition animation when removing the background — for example, breaking the background into pieces as it disappears. The app Capword has a similar feature for object isolation, and I’d like to build something like that. Could you please provide any guidance, frameworks, or sample code related to: Object segmentation and background removal in Swift (Vision or Core ML). Applying custom borders and shape animations around detected objects. Recognizing the object name (e.g., “person”, “cat”, “car”) after segmentation. Thank you very much for your support. Best regards, SINN SOKLYHOR

Due to our min iOS version, this is my first time using .xcstrings instead of .strings for AppShortcuts. When using the migrate .strings to .xcstrings Xcode context menu option, an .xcstrings catalog is produced that, as expected, has each invocation phrase as a separate string key. However, after compilation, the catalog changes to group all invocation phrases under the first phrase listed for each intent (see attached screenshot). It is possible to hover in blank space on the right and add more translations, but there is no 1:1 key matching requirement to the phrases on the left nor a requirement that there are the same number of keys in one language vs. another. (The lines just happen to align due to my window size.) What does that mean, practically? Do all sub-phrases in each language in AppShortcuts.xcstrings get processed during compilation, even if there isn't an equivalent phrase key declared in the AppShortcut (e.g., the ja translation has more phrases than the English)? (That makes some logical sense, as these phrases need not be 1:1 across languages.) In the AppShortcut declaration, if I delete all but the top invocation phrase, does nothing change with Siri? Is there something I'm doing incorrectly? struct WatchShortcuts: AppShortcutsProvider { static var appShortcuts: [AppShortcut] { AppShortcut( intent: QuickAddWaterIntent(), phrases: [ "\(.applicationName) log water", "\(.applicationName) log my water", "Log water in \(.applicationName)", "Log my water in \(.applicationName)", "Log a bottle of water in \(.applicationName)", ], shortTitle: "Log Water", systemImageName: "drop.fill" ) } }

I'm running MacOs 26 Beta 5. I noticed that I can no longer achieve 100% usage on the ANE as I could before with Apple Foundations on-device model. Has Apple activated some kind of throttling or power limiting of the ANE? I cannot get above 3w or 40% usage now since upgrading. I'm on the high power energy mode. I there an API rate limit being applied? I kave a M4 Pro mini with 64 GB of memory.

Hardware: Macbook Pro M4 Nov 2024 Software: macOS Tahoe 26.0 & xcode 26.0 Apple Intelligence is activated and the Image playground macOS app works Running the following on xcode throws ImagePlayground.ImageCreator.Error.creationFailed Any suggestions on how to make this work? import Foundation import ImagePlayground Task { let creator = try await ImageCreator() guard let style = creator.availableStyles.first else { print("No styles available") exit(1) } let images = creator.images( for: [.text("A cat wearing mittens.")], style: style, limit: 1) for try await image in images { print("Generated image: \(image)") } exit(0) } RunLoop.main.run()

If try to dynamically load WhipserKit's models, as in below, the download never occurs. No error or anything. And at the same time I can still get to the huggingface.co hosting site without any headaches, so it's not a blocking issue. let config = WhisperKitConfig( model: "openai_whisper-large-v3", modelRepo: "argmaxinc/whisperkit-coreml" ) So I have to default to the tiny model as seen below. I have tried so many ways, using ChatGPT and others, to build the models on my Mac, but too many failures, because I have never dealt with builds like that before. Are there any hosting sites that have the models (small, medium, large) already built where I can download them and just bundle them into my project? Wasted quite a large amount of time trying to get this done. import Foundation import WhisperKit @MainActor class WhisperLoader: ObservableObject { var pipe: WhisperKit? init() { Task { await self.initializeWhisper() } } private func initializeWhisper() async { do { Logging.shared.logLevel = .debug Logging.shared.loggingCallback = { message in print("[WhisperKit] \(message)") } let pipe = try await WhisperKit() // defaults to "tiny" self.pipe = pipe print("initialized. Model state: \(pipe.modelState)") guard let audioURL = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "44pf", withExtension: "wav") else { fatalError("not in bundle") } let result = try await pipe.transcribe(audioPath: audioURL.path) print("result: \(result)") } catch { print("Error: \(error)") } } }

Hi, I'm currently using Metal Performance Shaders Graph (MPSGraphExecutable) to run neural network inference operations as part of a metal rendering pipeline. I also tried to profile the usage of neural engine when running inference using MPSGraphExecutable but the graph shows no sign of neural engine usage. However, when I used the coreML model inspection tool in xcode and run performance report, it was able to use ANE. Does MPSGraphExecutable automatically utilize the Apple Neural Engine (ANE) when running inference operations, or does it only execute on GPU? My model (Core ML Package) was converted from a pytouch model using coremltools with ML program type and support iOS17.0+. Any insights or documentation references would be greatly appreciated!

I am working on a lung cancer scanning app in for iOS with a CoreML model and when I test my app on a physical device, the model results in the same prediction 100% of the time. I even changed the names around and still resulted in the same case. I have listed my labels in cases and when its just stuck on the same case (case 1) My code is below: https://github.com/ShivenKhurana1/Detect-to-Protect-App/blob/main/DetectToProtect/SecondView.swift I couldn't add the code as it was too long so I hope github link is fine!

I have an app that uses a couple of mlmodels (word tagger and gazetteer) and I’m trying to encrypt them before publishing. The models are part of a package. I understand that Xcode can’t automatically handle the encryption for a model in a package the way it can within a traditional app structure. Given that, I’ve generated the Apple MLModel encryption key from Xcode and am encrypting via the command line with: xcrun coremlcompiler compile Gazetteer.mlmodel GazetteerENC.mlmodelc --encrypt Gazetteerkey.mlmodelkey In the package manifest, I’ve listed the encrypted models as .copy resources for my target and have verified the URL to that file is good. When I try to load the encrypted .mlmodelc file (on a physical device) with the line:
 gazetteer = try NLGazetteer(contentsOf: gazetteerURL!) I get the error: Failed to open file: /…/Scanner.bundle/GazetteerENC.mlmodelc/coremldata.bin. It is not a valid .mlmodelc file. So my questions are: Does the NLGazetteer class support encrypted MLModel files? Given that my models are in a package, do I have the right general approach? Thanks for any help or thoughts.

Hi! I noticed that on my father's M1 Max MacBook Pro (64gb ram) there's an option for style transfer which I don't see on my M1 MacBook Air (16gb ram). I am running macOS Tahoe and he is running macOS Sequoia.

The developer tutorial for visual intelligence indicates that the method to detect and handle taps on a displayed entity from the Search section is via an "OpenIntent" associated with your entity. However, running this intent executes code from within my app. If I have the perform() method display UI, it always displays UI from within my app. I noticed that the Google app's integration to visual intelligence has a different behavior-- tapping on an entity does not take you to the Google app -- instead, a Webview is presented sheet-style WITHIN the Visual Intelligence environment (see below) How is that accomplished?

I downloaded the new developer beta and then installed xcode. I did the downloads but I couldn't download the Predictive Code Completion Model. When I try to download it I get the error "The operation couldn’t be completed. (ModelCatalog.CatalogErrors.AssetErrors error 1.)". I am using the M3 Pro model.

I'm developing a tennis ball tracking feature using Vision Framework in Swift, specifically utilizing VNDetectedObjectObservation and VNTrackObjectRequest. Occasionally (but not always), I receive the following runtime error: Failed to perform SequenceRequest: Error Domain=com.apple.Vision Code=9 "Internal error: unexpected tracked object bounding box size" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Internal error: unexpected tracked object bounding box size} From my investigation, I suspect the issue arises when the bounding box from the initial observation (VNDetectedObjectObservation) is too small. However, Apple's documentation doesn't clearly define the minimum bounding box size that's considered valid by VNTrackObjectRequest. Could someone clarify: What is the minimum acceptable bounding box width and height (normalized) that Vision Framework's VNTrackObjectRequest expects? Is there any recommended practice or official guidance for bounding box size validation before creating a tracking request? This information would be extremely helpful to reliably avoid this internal error. Thank you!

Hi all, I am interested in unlocking unique applications with the new foundational models. I have a few questions regarding the availability of the following features: Image Input: The update in June 2025 mentions "image" 44 times (https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/apple-foundation-models-2025-updates) - however I can't seem to find any information about having images as the input/prompt for the foundational models. When will this be available? I understand that there are existing Vision ML APIs, but I want image input into a multimodal on-device LLM (VLM) instead for features like "Which player is holding the ball in the image", etc (image understanding) Cloud Foundational Model - when will this be available? Thanks! Clement :)

I'm adding Visual Intelligence support to my app, and now want to add a Tip using TipKit to guide users to this feature from within my app. I want to add a Rule to my Tip which will only show this Tip on devices where Visual Intelligence is supported (ex. not iPhone 14 Pro Max). What is the best way for me to determine availability to set this TipKit rule? Here's the documentation I'm following for Visual Intelligence: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/visualintelligence/integrating-your-app-with-visual-intelligence

I'm experimenting with Foundation Models and I'm trying to understand how to define a Tool whose input argument is defined at runtime. Specifically, I want a Tool that takes a single String parameter that can only take certain values defined at runtime. I think my question is basically the same as this one: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/793471 However, the answer provided by the engineer doesn't actually demonstrate how to create the GenerationSchema. Trying to piece things together from the documentation that the engineer linked to, I came up with this: let citiesDefinedAtRuntime = ["London", "New York", "Paris"] let citySchema = DynamicGenerationSchema( name: "CityList", properties: [ DynamicGenerationSchema.Property( name: "city", schema: DynamicGenerationSchema( name: "city", anyOf: citiesDefinedAtRuntime ) ) ] ) let generationSchema = try GenerationSchema(root: citySchema, dependencies: []) let tools = [CityInfo(parameters: generationSchema)] let session = LanguageModelSession(tools: tools, instructions: "...") With the CityInfo Tool defined like this: struct CityInfo: Tool { let name: String = "getCityInfo" let description: String = "Get information about a city." let parameters: GenerationSchema func call(arguments: GeneratedContent) throws -> String { let cityName = try arguments.value(String.self, forProperty: "city") print("Requested info about \(cityName)") let cityInfo = getCityInfo(for: cityName) return cityInfo } func getCityInfo(for city: String) -> String { // some backend that provides the info } } This compiles and usually seems to work. However, sometimes the model will try to request info about a city that is not in citiesDefinedAtRuntime. For example, if I prompt the model with "I want to travel to Tokyo in Japan, can you tell me about this city?", the model will try to request info about Tokyo, even though this is not in the citiesDefinedAtRuntime array. My understanding is that this should not be possible – constrained generation should only allow the LLM to generate an input argument from the list of cities defined in the schema. Am I missing something here or overcomplicating things? What's the correct way to make sure the LLM can only call a Tool with an input parameter from a set of possible values defined at runtime? Many thanks!

I’m considering creating an ILMessageFilterExtension using a mini LLM/SLM to detect fraud and I’ve read it has strict memory limits yet I can’t find it in the documentation. What’s the set limit or any other constraints impacting the feasibility of running 100-500mb model?