A new AI model for the iPhone is publicly available: OpenELM, an open-source model running locally on the device, not in the cloud

Many were taken away when Apple, who is frequently seen to be falling behind in the AI race, recently unveiled OpenELM, a state-of-the-art generative AI model that is optimized for on-device use.

Although Apple has kept its AI activities under wraps, the launch of OpenELM demonstrates the company’s long-standing dedication to AI innovation.

A series of open-source language models called OpenELM was created specifically to function well with Apple products like Macs and iPhones. To improve accuracy, OpenELM distributes parameters among the transformer model’s levels using a layer-wise scaling approach.

To differentiate itself from its predecessors, OpenELM has been trained on public datasets and has eight models available in four different parameter sizes, ranging from 270M to 3B.

OpenELM is unique in that it can do AI-powered operations independently of cloud servers, which makes it perfect for on-device use.

OpenELM has proven to perform better than comparable models like OLMo, even though it requires half as much training data. It has been trained with other models on the open-source CoreNet framework to allow effective inference and fine-tuning on Apple devices.

Like other companies, Apple has released OpenELM in full, including the whole framework for training and evaluating on publicly available datasets in addition to model weights and inference code.

This action is to support upcoming AI research endeavors and improve the open research community.

The introduction of OpenELM just a few weeks before Apple’s WWDC conference suggests that iOS 18 might have AI features. With the launch of this open-source project, Apple has made a big change in strategy, abandoning its past secrecy and embracing openness and cooperation among researchers.

With the announcement of OpenELM, the growing significance of on-device AI is shown by the fact that tech giants like Microsoft and now Apple are investing in small-model technologies.

In addition to improving customer privacy, Apple’s accept of on-device AI signals a new wave of innovation in the field of artificial intelligence.