Apple Foundation Models • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Foundation Models

#51

Post by claud_ia » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 10:04 AM UTC

klausa wrote: post #30

daniel_iversen wrote: post #4

Is this Apple encouraging developers to go through their api abstraction layer to use LLMs so that when they launch their own (which I think we’ve heard they’ve been spending lots of money on training and might be somehow involved with Siri or current Apple AI?) that they can easily help devs make a seamless transition? Or is it just a developer nicety or something else?

This is support for a new framework that ships with reality/mac/iPad/watch/tv/iOS 27 (and that they've promised to open-source later in the year, so presumably you'll also be able to lean on this if you ship Swift on your backend). The framework's whole deal is that it lets you use the same API to target either the device built-in models, the Apple-hosted online models (Private Cloud Computer), or write your own shim…

[dead]

Re: Apple Foundation Models

#52

Post by londons_explore » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 10:11 AM UTC

> A key bundled into an app is extractable from the shipping binary, and anyone who extracts it can make requests billed to your account. Use .apiKey for development only, and switch to a proxy before release.

I don't like this model. Then all the user data is visible to the proxy.

Far better would be some kind of micro payment architecture where a wallet is on the users device and coins are attached to each request.

We just need to live in the alternate universe where micro payments succeeded.

Re: Apple Foundation Models

#53

Post by isoprophlex » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 10:13 AM UTC

21-DOT-DEV wrote: post #26

> Usage is billed to your Anthropic account at standard API pricing. While expected, it’s still a bummer.

The pricing squeezes will continue until token spend improves!

Re: Apple Foundation Models

#54

Post by insumanth » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 10:13 AM UTC

This was expected. Apple will carefully choose what & how people can use AI in their ecosystem and will make sure of it. I hope "Apple Foundation Models" Eco-system grows with support from major model providers.

Re: Apple Foundation Models

#55

Post by klausa » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 10:13 AM UTC

harrouet wrote: post #49

This is Apple commoditizing LLMs while keeping control of the UX. They are a hardware company and will keep selling the best machine for AI use. Well done.

How is this Apple keeping control of the UX?

Re: Apple Foundation Models

#56

Post by pgt » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 10:14 AM UTC

I’m surprised to see the model names hardcoded as an enum (e.g. `.sonnet4_6`), instead of a string with model discovery so that the user can select their preferred model without having to get a new app version through the App Store to support newer models.

Re: Apple Foundation Models

#57

Post by taneq » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 10:15 AM UTC

rock_artist wrote: post #16

While I'm happy with Apple introducing this abstraction. my main concern was with local models. I'd love using Gemma4 as an example. but thinking of a user. if 10 Apps each uses same model and downloads it, the phone will be bloated. I still didn't understand if Apple provided a way for multiple apps uses same on-device model (without tricky namespaces and permissions). I didn't see anything suggesting that's the cas…

Sounds ripe for block-level deduplication. :D Or an API that lets you request a model and handles caching.

Re: Apple Foundation Models

#58

Post by klausa » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 10:15 AM UTC

VadimPR wrote: post #45

How can you practically use this in software if you're to deploy this to users? Asking a user to create and enter their own API key is a bar too high for good UX.

The same way you did it before — by proxying the requests to your backend.

Re: Apple Foundation Models

#59

Post by klausa » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 10:16 AM UTC

pgt wrote: post #56

I’m surprised to see the model names hardcoded as an enum (e.g. `.sonnet4_6`), instead of a string with model discovery so that the user can select their preferred model without having to get a new app version through the App Store to support newer models.

>Model identifiers are values of ClaudeModel. Use a compiled-in constant, or construct one with explicit capabilities for an ID that isn't compiled in yet (see Capabilities):

Special emphasis on the "isn't compiled in yet" and "or construct one" bit.

Re: Apple Foundation Models

#60

Post by mcintyre1994 » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 10:18 AM UTC

I think this is just Apple planning for their on-device models getting better, which makes sense given they have access to Gemini now. If developers use this for all their code calling an external LLM, then as Apple's model becomes more capable and covers more use cases it'll be easy to switch to it at individual call sites. That'll give apps better UX and save developers money on a bill that Apple doesn't get a cut of.