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'm implementing an App Intent for my iOS app that helps users plan trip activities. It only works when run as a shortcut but not using voice through Siri. There are 2 issues: The ShortcutsTripEntity will only accept a voice input for a specific trip but not others. I'm stuck with a throwing error when trying to use requestDisambiguation() on the activity day @Parameter property. How do I rectify these issues. This is blocking me from completing a critical feature that lets users quickly plan activities through Siri and Shortcuts. Expected behavior for trip input: The intent should make Siri accept the spoken trip input from any of the options. Actual behavior for trip input: Siri only accepts the same trip when spoken but accepts any when selected by click/touch. Expected behavior for day input: Siri should accept the spoken selected option. Actual behavior for day input: Siri only accepts an input by click/touch but yet throws an error at runtime I'm happy to provide more code. But here's the relevant code: struct PlanActivityTestIntent: AppIntent { @Parameter(title: "Activity Day") var activityDay: ShortcutsItineraryDayEntity @Parameter( title: "Trip", description: "The trip to plan an activity for", default: ShortcutsTripEntity(id: UUID().uuidString, title: "Untitled trip"), requestValueDialog: "Which trip would you like to add an activity to?" ) var tripEntity: ShortcutsTripEntity @Parameter(title: "Activity Title", description: "The title of the activity", requestValueDialog: "What do you want to do or see?") var title: String @Parameter(title: "Activity Day", description: "Activity Day", default: ShortcutsItineraryDayEntity(itineraryDay: .init(itineraryId: UUID(), date: .now), timeZoneIdentifier: "UTC")) var activityDay: ShortcutsItineraryDayEntity func perform() async throws -> some ProvidesDialog { // ...other code... let tripsStore = TripsStore() // load trips and map them to entities try? await tripsStore.getTrips() let tripsAsEntities = tripsStore.trips.map { trip in let id = trip.id ?? UUID() let title = trip.title return ShortcutsTripEntity(id: id.uuidString, title: title, trip: trip) } // Ask user to select a trip. This line would doesn't accept a voice // answer. Why? let selectedTrip = try await $tripEntity.requestDisambiguation( among: tripsAsEntities, dialog: .init( full: "Which of the \(tripsAsEntities.count) trip would you like to add an activity to?", supporting: "Select a trip", systemImageName: "safari.fill" ) ) // This line throws an error let selectedDay = try await $activityDay.requestDisambiguation( among: daysAsEntities, dialog:"Which day would you like to plan an activity for?" ) } } Here are some related images that might help:

Here's the result: Very weird.

Hello everyone, I have a visual convolutional model and a video that has been decoded into many frames. When I perform inference on each frame in a loop, the speed is a bit slow. So, I started 4 threads, each running inference simultaneously, but I found that the speed is the same as serial inference, every single forward inference is slower. I used the mactop tool to check the GPU utilization, and it was only around 20%. Is this normal? How can I accelerate it?

As we described on the title, the model that I have built completely works on iPhone 15 / A16 Bionic, on the other hand it does not run on iPhone 16 / A18 chip with the following error message. E5RT encountered an STL exception. msg = MILCompilerForANE error: failed to compile ANE model using ANEF. Error=_ANECompiler : ANECCompile() FAILED. E5RT: MILCompilerForANE error: failed to compile ANE model using ANEF. Error=_ANECompiler : ANECCompile() FAILED (11) It consumes 1.5 ~ 1.6 GB RAM on the loading the model, then the consumption is decreased to less than 100MB on the both of iPhone 15 and 16. After that, only on iPhone 16, the above error is shown on the Xcode log, the memory consumption is surged to 5 to 6GB, and the system kills the app. It works well only on iPhone 15. This model is built with the Core ML tools. Until now, I have tried the target iOS 16 to 18 and the compute units of CPU_AND_NE and ALL. But any ways have not solved this issue. Eventually, what kindof fix should I do? minimum_deployment_target = ct.target.iOS18 compute_units = ct.ComputeUnit.ALL compute_precision = ct.precision.FLOAT16

I can no longer achieve 100% ANE usage since upgrading to MacOS26 Beta 5. I used to be able to get 100%. Has Apple activated throttling or power saving features in the new Betas? Is there any new rate limiting on the API? I can hardly get above 3w or 40%. I have a M4 Pro mini (64GB) with High Power energy setting. MacOS 26 Beta 5.

Is the face and body detection service in the Vision framework a local model or a cloud model? Is there a performance report? https://developer.apple.com/documentation/vision

May i know the bundle identifier for apple intelligence?

We are developing Apple AI for overseas markets and adapting it for iPhone 17 and later models. When the system language and Siri language do not match—such as the system being in English while Siri is in Chinese—it may result in Apple AI being unusable. So, I would like to ask, how can this issue be resolved, and are there other reasons that might cause it to be unusable within the app?

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!

JAX Metal shows 55x slower random number generation compared to NVIDIA CUDA on equivalent workloads. This makes Monte Carlo simulations and scientific computing impractical on Apple Silicon. Performance Comparison NVIDIA GPU: 0.475s for 12.6M random elements M1 Max Metal: 26.3s for same workload Performance gap: 55x slower Environment Apple M1 Max, 64GB RAM, macOS Sequoia Version 15.6.1 JAX 0.4.34, jax-metal latest Backend: Metal Reproduction Code import time import jax import jax.numpy as jnp from jax import random key = random.PRNGKey(42) start_time = time.time() random_array = random.normal(key, (50000, 252)) duration = time.time() - start_time print(f"Duration: {duration:.3f}s")

I’m trying to follow Apple’s “WWDC24: Bring your machine learning and AI models to Apple Silicon” session to convert the Mistral-7B-Instruct-v0.2 model into a Core ML package, but I’ve run into a roadblock that I can’t seem to overcome. I’ve uploaded my full conversion script here for reference: https://pastebin.com/T7Zchzfc When I run the script, it progresses through tracing and MIL conversion but then fails at the backend_mlprogram stage with this error: https://pastebin.com/fUdEzzKM The core of the error is: ValueError: Op "keyCache_tmp" (op_type: identity) Input x="keyCache" expects list, tensor, or scalar but got state[tensor[1,32,8,2048,128,fp16]] I’ve registered my KV-cache buffers in a StatefulMistralWrapper subclass of nn.Module, matching the keyCache and valueCache state names in my ct.StateType definitions, but Core ML’s backend pass reports the state tensor as an invalid input. I’m using Core ML Tools 8.3.0 on Python 3.9.6, targeting iOS18, and forcing CPU conversion (MPS wasn’t available). Any pointers on how to satisfy the handle_unused_inputs pass or properly declare/cache state for GQA models in Core ML would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance for your help, Usman Khan

I have used mlx_lm.lora to fine tune a mistral-7b-v0.3-4bit model with my data. I fused the mistral model with my adapters and upload the fused model to my directory on huggingface. I was able to use mlx_lm.generate to use the fused model in Terminal. However, I don't know how to load the model in Swift. I've used Imports import SwiftUI import MLX import MLXLMCommon import MLXLLM let modelFactory = LLMModelFactory.shared let configuration = ModelConfiguration( id: "pharmpk/pk-mistral-7b-v0.3-4bit" ) // Load the model off the main actor, then assign on the main actor let loaded = try await modelFactory.loadContainer(configuration: configuration) { progress in print("Downloading progress: \(progress.fractionCompleted * 100)%") } await MainActor.run { self.model = loaded } I'm getting an error runModel error: downloadError("A server with the specified hostname could not be found.") Any suggestions? Thanks, David PS, I can load the model from the app bundle // directory: Bundle.main.resourceURL! but it's too big to upload for Testflight

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?

Hi everyone, I'm trying to use VNDetectTextRectanglesRequest to detect text rectangles in an image. Here's my current code: guard let cgImage = image.cgImage(forProposedRect: nil, context: nil, hints: nil) else { return } let textDetectionRequest = VNDetectTextRectanglesRequest { request, error in if let error = error { print("Text detection error: \(error)") return } guard let observations = request.results as? [VNTextObservation] else { print("No text rectangles detected.") return } print("Detected \(observations.count) text rectangles.") for observation in observations { print(observation.boundingBox) } } textDetectionRequest.revision = VNDetectTextRectanglesRequestRevision1 textDetectionRequest.reportCharacterBoxes = true let handler = VNImageRequestHandler(cgImage: cgImage, orientation: .up, options: [:]) do { try handler.perform([textDetectionRequest]) } catch { print("Vision request error: \(error)") } The request completes without error, but no text rectangles are detected — the observations array is empty (count = 0). Here's a sample image I'm testing with: I expected VNTextObservation results, but I'm not getting any. Is there something I'm missing in how this API works? Or could it be a limitation of this request or revision? Thanks for any help!

Hi everyone, I believe I’ve encountered a potential bug or a hardware alignment limitation in the Core ML Framework / ANE Runtime specifically affecting the new Stateful API (introduced in iOS 18/macOS 15). The Issue: A Stateful mlprogram fails to run on the Apple Neural Engine (ANE) if the state tensor dimensions (specifically the width) are not a multiple of 32. The model works perfectly on CPU and GPU, but fails on ANE both during runtime and when generating a Performance Report in Xcode. Error Message in Xcode UI: "There was an error creating the performance report Unable to compute the prediction using ML Program. It can be an invalid input data or broken/unsupported model." Observations: Case A (Fails): State shape = (1, 3, 480, 270). Prediction fails on ANE. Case B (Success): State shape = (1, 3, 480, 256). Prediction succeeds on ANE. This suggests an internal memory alignment or tiling issue within the ANE driver when handling Stateful buffers that don't meet the 32-pixel/element alignment. Reproduction Code (PyTorch + coremltools): import torch.nn as nn import coremltools as ct import numpy as np class RNN_Stateful(nn.Module): def __init__(self, hidden_shape): super(RNN_Stateful, self).__init__() # Simple conv to update state self.conv1 = nn.Conv2d(3 + hidden_shape[1], hidden_shape[1], kernel_size=3, padding=1) self.conv2 = nn.Conv2d(hidden_shape[1], 3, kernel_size=3, padding=1) self.register_buffer("hidden_state", torch.ones(hidden_shape, dtype=torch.float16)) def forward(self, imgs): self.hidden_state = self.conv1(torch.cat((imgs, self.hidden_state), dim=1)) return self.conv2(self.hidden_state) # h=480, w=255 causes ANE failure. w=256 works. b, ch, h, w = 1, 3, 480, 255 model = RNN_Stateful((b, ch, h, w)).eval() traced_model = torch.jit.trace(model, torch.randn(b, 3, h, w)) mlmodel = ct.convert( traced_model, inputs=[ct.TensorType(name="input_image", shape=(b, 3, h, w), dtype=np.float16)], outputs=[ct.TensorType(name="output", dtype=np.float16)], states=[ct.StateType(wrapped_type=ct.TensorType(shape=(b, ch, h, w), dtype=np.float16), name="hidden_state")], minimum_deployment_target=ct.target.iOS18, convert_to="mlprogram" ) mlmodel.save("rnn_stateful.mlpackage") Steps to see the error: Open the generated .mlpackage in Xcode 16.0+. Go to the Performance tab and run a test on a device with ANE (e.g., iPhone 15/16 or M-series Mac). The report will fail to generate with the error mentioned above. Environment: OS: macOS 15.2 Xcode: 16.3 Hardware: M4 Has anyone else encountered this 32-pixel alignment requirement for StateType tensors on ANE? Is this a known hardware constraint or a bug in the Core ML runtime? Any insights or workarounds (other than manual padding) would be appreciated.

the specific context is that i would like to build an agent that monitors my phone call (with a customer support for example), and simiply identify whether or not im still put on hold, and notify me when im not. currently after reading the doc, i dont think its possible yet, but im so annoyed by the customer support calls that im willing to go the distance and see if theres any way.

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

Hello. I am willing to hire game developer for cards game called baloot. My question is Can the developer implement an AI when the computer is playing and the computer on the same time the conputer improves his rises level without any interaction? 🌹

I've created the following Foundation Models Tool, which uses the .anyOf guide to constrain the LLM's generation of suitable input arguments. When calling the tool, the model is only allowed to request one of a fixed set of sections, as defined in the sections array. struct SectionReader: Tool { let article: Article let sections: [String] let name: String = "readSection" let description: String = "Read a specific section from the article." var parameters: GenerationSchema { GenerationSchema( type: GeneratedContent.self, properties: [ GenerationSchema.Property( name: "section", description: "The article section to access.", type: String.self, guides: [.anyOf(sections)] ) ] ) } func call(arguments: GeneratedContent) async throws -> String { let requestedSectionName = try arguments.value(String.self, forProperty: "section") ... } } However, I have found that the model will sometimes call the tool with invalid (but plausible) section names, meaning that .anyOf is not actually doing its job (i.e. requestedSectionName is sometimes not a member of sections). The documentation for the .anyOf guide says, "Enforces that the string be one of the provided values." Is this a bug or have I made a mistake somewhere? Many thanks for any help you provide!

Hi, I am a new IOS developer, trying to learn to integrate the Apple Foundation Model. my set up is: Mac M1 Pro MacOS 26 Beta Version 26.0 beta 3 Apple Intelligence & Siri --> On here is the code, func generate() { Task { isGenerating = true output = "⏳ Thinking..." do { let session = LanguageModelSession( instructions: """ Extract time from a message. Example Q: Golfing at 6PM A: 6PM """) let response = try await session.respond(to: "Go to gym at 7PM") output = response.content } catch { output = "❌ Error:, \(error)" print(output) } isGenerating = false } and I get these errors guardrailViolation(FoundationModels.LanguageModelSession.GenerationError.Context(debugDescription: "Prompt may contain sensitive or unsafe content", underlyingErrors: [Asset com.apple.gm.safety_embedding_deny.all not found in Model Catalog])) Can you help me get through this?