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.

I got 3203.23 GFLOPS (FP16) on the M3 Macbook Pro and only 2833.24 GFLOPS (FP16) on the M4 Macbook Air for 4096x4096 matrix multiplications for a PyTorch MPS FP16 Benchmark. Wasn't the performance supposed to be twice as high on the M4 compared to the M3 even with the termal throtling on the Macbook Air? What went wrong?

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.

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()

Hello, I am interested in using jax-metal to train ML models using Apple Silicon. I understand this is experimental. After installing jax-metal according to https://developer.apple.com/metal/jax/, my python code fails with the following error JaxRuntimeError: UNKNOWN: -:0:0: error: unknown attribute code: 22 -:0:0: note: in bytecode version 6 produced by: StableHLO_v1.12.1 My issue is identical to the one reported here https://github.com/jax-ml/jax/issues/26968#issuecomment-2733120325, and is fixed by pinning to jax-metal 0.1.1., jax 0.5.0 and jaxlib 0.5.0. Thank you!

I'm implementing an LLM with Metal Performance Shader Graph, but encountered a very strange behavior, occasionally, the model will report an error message as this: LLVM ERROR: SmallVector unable to grow. Requested capacity (9223372036854775808) is larger than maximum value for size type (4294967295) and crash, the stack backtrace screenshot is attached. Note that 5th frame is mlir::getIntValues<long long> and 6th frame is llvm::SmallVectorBase<unsigned int>::grow_pod It looks like mlir mistakenly took a 64 bit value for a 32 bit type. Unfortunately, I could not found the source code of mlir::getIntValues, maybe it's Apple's closed source fork of llvm for MPS implementation? Anyway, any opinion or suggestion on that?

I'm experimenting with the new SpeechTranscriber in macOS/iOS 26, transcribing speech from a prerecorded mp4 file. Speed and quality are amazing! I've told the transcriber to include time indexes. Each run is always exactly one word, which can be very useful. When I look at the indexes the end of one run is always identical to the start of the next run, even if there's a pause. I'd like to identify pauses, perhaps to generate something like phrases for subtitling. With each run of text going into the next I can't do this, other than using punctuation - which might be rather rough. Any suggestions on detecting pauses, or getting that kind of metadata from the transcriber? Here's a short sample, showing each run with the start, end, and characters in the run: 105.9 --> 107.04 I 107.04 --> 107.16 think 107.16 --> 108.0 more 108.0 --> 108.42 lighting 108.42 --> 108.6 is 108.6 --> 108.72 definitely 108.72 --> 109.2 needed, 109.2 --> 109.92 downtown. 109.98 --> 110.4 My 110.4 --> 110.52 only 110.52 --> 110.7 question 110.7 --> 111.06 is, 111.06 --> 111.48 poll 111.48 --> 111.78 five, 111.78 --> 111.84 that 111.84 --> 112.08 you're 112.08 --> 112.38 increasing 112.38 --> 112.5 the 112.5 --> 113.34 50,000? 113.4 --> 113.58 Where 113.58 --> 113.88 exactly

Hello everyone, I’m looking for guidance regarding my app review timeline, as things seem unusually delayed compared to previous submissions. My iOS app was rejected on November 19th due to AI-related policy questions. I immediately responded to the reviewer with detailed explanations covering: Model used (Gemini Flash 2.0 / 2.5 Lite) How the AI only generates neutral, non-directive reflective questions How the system prevents any diagnosis, therapy-like behavior or recommendations Crisis-handling limitations Safety safeguards at generation and UI level Internal red-team testing and results Data retention, privacy, and non-use of data for model training After sending the requested information, I resubmitted the build on November 19th at 14:40. Since then: November 20th (7:30) → Status changed to In Review. November 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th → No movement, still In Review. My open case on App Store Connect is still pending without updates. Because of the previous rejection, I expected a short delay, but this is now 5 days total and 3 business days with no progress, which feels longer than usual for my past submissions. I’m not sure whether: My app is in a secondary review queue due to the AI-related rejection, The reviewer is waiting for internal clarification, Or if something is stuck and needs to be escalated. I don’t want to resubmit a new build unless necessary, since that would restart the queue. Could someone from the community (or Apple, if possible) confirm whether this waiting time is normal after an AI-policy rejection? And is there anything I should do besides waiting — for example, contacting Developer Support again or requesting a follow-up? Thank you very much for your help. I appreciate any insight from others who have experienced similar delays.

I am writing a custom package wrapping Foundation Models which provides a chain-of-thought with intermittent self-evaluation among other things. At first I was designing this package with the command line in mind, but after seeing how well it augments the models and makes them more intelligent I wanted to try and build a SwiftUI wrapper around the package. When I started I was using synchronous generation rather than streaming, but to give the best user experience (as I've seen in the WWDC sessions) it is necessary to provide constant feedback to the user that something is happening. I have created a super simplified example of my setup so it's easier to understand. First, there is the Reasoning conversation item, which can be converted to an XML representation which is then fed back into the model (I've found XML works best for structured input) public typealias ConversationContext = XMLDocument extension ConversationContext { public func toPlainText() -> String { return xmlString(options: [.nodePrettyPrint]) } } /// Represents a reasoning item in a conversation, which includes a title and reasoning content. /// Reasoning items are used to provide detailed explanations or justifications for certain decisions or responses within a conversation. @Generable(description: "A reasoning item in a conversation, containing content and a title.") struct ConversationReasoningItem: ConversationItem { @Guide(description: "The content of the reasoning item, which is your thinking process or explanation") public var reasoningContent: String @Guide(description: "A short summary of the reasoning content, digestible in an interface.") public var title: String @Guide(description: "Indicates whether reasoning is complete") public var done: Bool } extension ConversationReasoningItem: ConversationContextProvider { public func toContext() -> ConversationContext { // <ReasoningItem title="${title}"> // ${reasoningContent} // </ReasoningItem> let root = XMLElement(name: "ReasoningItem") root.addAttribute(XMLNode.attribute(withName: "title", stringValue: title) as! XMLNode) root.stringValue = reasoningContent return ConversationContext(rootElement: root) } } Then there is the generator, which creates a reasoning item from a user query and previously generated items: struct ReasoningItemGenerator { var instructions: String { """ <omitted for brevity> """ } func generate(from input: (String, [ConversationReasoningItem])) async throws -> sending LanguageModelSession.ResponseStream<ConversationReasoningItem> { let session = LanguageModelSession(instructions: instructions) // build the context for the reasoning item out of the user's query and the previous reasoning items let userQuery = "User's query: \(input.0)" let reasoningItemsText = input.1.map { $0.toContext().toPlainText() }.joined(separator: "\n") let context = userQuery + "\n" + reasoningItemsText let reasoningItemResponse = try await session.streamResponse( to: context, generating: ConversationReasoningItem.self) return reasoningItemResponse } } I'm not sure if returning LanguageModelSession.ResponseStream<ConversationReasoningItem> is the right move, I am just trying to imitate what session.streamResponse returns. Then there is the orchestrator, which I can't figure out. It receives the streamed ConversationReasoningItems from the Generator and is responsible for streaming those to SwiftUI later and also for evaluating each reasoning item after it is complete to see if it needs to be regenerated (to keep the model on-track). I want the users of the orchestrator to receive partially generated reasoning items as they are being generated by the generator. Later, when they finish, if the evaluation passes, the item is kept, but if it fails, the reasoning item should be removed from the stream before a new one is generated. So in-flight reasoning items should be outputted aggresively. I really am having trouble figuring this out so if someone with more knowledge about asynchronous stuff in Swift, or- even better- someone who has worked on the Foundation Models framework could point me in the right direction, that would be awesome!

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)") } } }

I am follwing this tutorial: https://apple.github.io/coremltools/docs-guides/source/convert-a-torchvision-model-from-pytorch.html I have obtained simialr result using the python code. However when I view it in Xcode, the preview prediction percentage confidence is way off I suspect it is due the the output of the model, which is in percentage already and in Xcode it multiply 100 again leading to this result. Please give me any feedback to fix this, thank you.

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 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.

I'm downloading a fine-tuned model from HuggingFace which is then cached on my Mac when the app first starts. However, I wanted to test adding a progress bar to show the download progress. To test this I need to delete the cached model. From what I've seen online this is cached at /Users/userName/.cache/huggingface/hub However, if I delete the files from here, using Terminal, the app still seems to be able to access the model. Is the model cached somewhere else? On my iPhone it seems deleting the app also deletes the cached model (app data) so that is useful.

We are trying to implement a custom encryption scheme for our Core ML models. Our goal is to bundle encrypted models, decrypt them into memory at runtime, and instantiate the MLModel without the unencrypted model file ever touching the disk. We have looked into the native apple encryption described here https://developer.apple.com/documentation/coreml/encrypting-a-model-in-your-app but it has limitations like not working on intel macs, without SIP, and doesn’t work loading from dylib. It seems like most of the Core ML APIs require a file path, there is MLModelAsset APIs but I think they just write a modelc back to disk when compiling but can’t find any information confirming that (also concerned that this seems to be an older API, and means we need to compile at runtime). I am aware that the native encryption will be much more secure but would like not to have the models in readable text on disk. Does anyone know if this is possible or any alternatives to try to obfuscate the Core ML models, thanks

I'm trying the new RecognizeDocumentsRequest supposed to detect paragraphs (among other things) in a document. I tried many source images, and I don't see the slightest difference compared to the old API (VN)RecognizedTextRequest Is it supposed to not work or is it in beta?

I’m trying to group my EntityPropertyQuery selection into sections as well as making it searchable. I know that the EntityStringQuery is used to perform the text search via entities(matching string: String). That works well enough and results in this modal: Though, when I’m using a DynamicOptionsProvider to section my EntityPropertyQuery, it doesn’t allow for searching anymore and simply opens the sectioned list in a menu like so: How can I combine both? I’ve seen it in other apps, but can’t figure out why my code doesn’t allow to section the results and make it searchable? Any ideas? My code (simplified) struct MyIntent: AppIntent { @Parameter(title: "Meter"), optionsProvider: MyOptionsProvider()) var meter: MyIntentEntity? // … struct MyOptionsProvider: DynamicOptionsProvider { func results() async throws -> ItemCollection<MyIntentEntity> { // Get All Data let allData = try IntentsDataHandler.shared.getEntities() // Create Arrays for Sections let fooEntities = allData.filter { $0.type == .foo } let barEntities = allData.filter { $0.type == .bar } return ItemCollection(sections: [ ItemSection("Foo", items: fooEntities), ItemSection("Bar", items: barEntities) ]) } } struct MeterIntentQuery: EntityStringQuery { // entities(for identifiers: [UUID]) and suggestedEntities() functions func entities(matching string: String) async throws -> [MyIntentEntity] { // Fetch All Data let allData = try IntentsDataHandler.shared.getEntities() // Filter Data by String let matchingData = allData.filter { data in return data.title.localizedCaseInsensitiveContains(string)) } return matchingData } }

When I ran the following code on a physical iPhone device that supports Apple Intelligence, I encountered the following error log. What does this internal error code mean? Image generation failed with NSError in a different domain: Error Domain=ImagePlaygroundInternal.ImageGeneration.GenerationError Code=11 “(null)”, returning a generic error instead let imageCreator = try await ImageCreator() let style = imageCreator.availableStyles.first ?? .animation let stream = imageCreator.images(for: [.text("cat")], style: style, limit: 1) for try await result in stream { // error: ImagePlayground.ImageCreator.Error.creationFailed _ = result.cgImage }

I'm really not familiar with ML, but I need a model that can enhance and denoise 4k video stream at 30fps. I have tried to search latest papers but they all have very complex structure, and I don't think I can convert them to mlmodel. So can anyone give me any recommandation for such models? If there is an existing mlmodel, that would be great!

Hello, I have to create an app in Swift that it scan NFC Identity card. It extract data and convert it to human readable data. I do it with below code import CoreNFC class NFCIdentityCardReader: NSObject , NFCTagReaderSessionDelegate { func tagReaderSessionDidBecomeActive(_ session: NFCTagReaderSession) { print("\(session.description)") } func tagReaderSession(_ session: NFCTagReaderSession, didInvalidateWithError error: any Error) { print("NFC Error: \(error.localizedDescription)") } var session: NFCTagReaderSession? func beginScanning() { guard NFCTagReaderSession.readingAvailable else { print("NFC is not supported on this device") return } session = NFCTagReaderSession(pollingOption: .iso14443, delegate: self, queue: nil) session?.alertMessage = "Hold your NFC identity card near the device." session?.begin() } func tagReaderSession(_ session: NFCTagReaderSession, didDetect tags: [NFCTag]) { guard let tag = tags.first else { session.invalidate(errorMessage: "No tag detected") return } session.connect(to: tag) { (error) in if let error = error { session.invalidate(errorMessage: "Connection error: \(error.localizedDescription)") return } switch tag { case .miFare(let miFareTag): self.readMiFareTag(miFareTag, session: session) case .iso7816(let iso7816Tag): self.readISO7816Tag(iso7816Tag, session: session) case .iso15693, .feliCa: session.invalidate(errorMessage: "Unsupported tag type") @unknown default: session.invalidate(errorMessage: "Unknown tag type") } } } private func readMiFareTag(_ tag: NFCMiFareTag, session: NFCTagReaderSession) { // Read from MiFare card, assuming it's formatted as an identity card let command: [UInt8] = [0x30, 0x04] // Example: Read command for block 4 let requestData = Data(command) tag.sendMiFareCommand(commandPacket: requestData) { (response, error) in if let error = error { session.invalidate(errorMessage: "Error reading MiFare: \(error.localizedDescription)") return } let readableData = String(data: response, encoding: .utf8) ?? response.map { String(format: "%02X", $0) }.joined() session.alertMessage = "ID Card Data: \(readableData)" session.invalidate() } } private func readISO7816Tag(_ tag: NFCISO7816Tag, session: NFCTagReaderSession) { let selectAppCommand = NFCISO7816APDU(instructionClass: 0x00, instructionCode: 0xA4, p1Parameter: 0x04, p2Parameter: 0x00, data: Data([0xA0, 0x00, 0x00, 0x02, 0x47, 0x10, 0x01]), expectedResponseLength: -1) tag.sendCommand(apdu: selectAppCommand) { (response, sw1, sw2, error) in if let error = error { session.invalidate(errorMessage: "Error reading ISO7816: \(error.localizedDescription)") return } let readableData = response.map { String(format: "%02X", $0) }.joined() session.alertMessage = "ID Card Data: \(readableData)" session.invalidate() } } } But I got null. I think that these data are encrypted. How can I convert them to readable data without MRZ, is it possible ? I need to get personal informations from Identity card via Core NFC. Thanks in advance. Best regards

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.