Apple, one of the world’s leading technology companies, has made a significant move in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Although Apple has been relatively quiet about its AI development plans, the company recently announced a new AI model called OpenELM. This model, which stands for “efficient open source language model,” is designed to perform text-related tasks such as writing emails. OpenELM is an open-source AI model that is available for developers to use.
OpenELM comprises four different versions of varying sizes, including a 270 million parameter version, a 450 million parameter version, a 1.1 billion parameter version, and a 3 billion parameter version. Parameters refer to the number of variables a model understands during the decision-making process from its training data sets. For example, Microsoft’s recent Phi-3 model has a minimum of 3.8 billion parameters, while Google’s Gemma model provides 2 billion parameters. Smaller models are cheaper to run and optimized to work on devices such as phones and laptops.
Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, has previously hinted at the company’s ambitions in AI, suggesting that synthetic AI features would appear on Apple’s devices in the future. Additionally, he mentioned that Apple is dedicating a significant amount of time and effort to AI development, although the company has not yet revealed specific details about the applications of AI.
Apple has also introduced various AI models in the past, such as MLX, an ideal machine learning framework that helps AI models run better on Apple Silicon. The company also introduced an image editing AI model called MGIE, which allows users to edit photos with prompts. Another AI model, Ferret-UI, can be used for smartphone navigation. Furthermore, Apple is reported to be developing a tool to facilitate programming code completion.
Despite developing its AI models, Apple has reached out to industry giants such as Google and OpenAI to bring their AI models to Apple’s products. This move demonstrates Apple’s commitment to AI development and its recognition of the importance of collaboration and partnership in this field.
