/Tech2d ago

Steven Sinofsky says orchestrating third-party model access is the main architectural question for Apple Intelligence

Apple will let independent experts verify its privacy protections.

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Steven Sinofsky
Andrew Mayne#1618
Original post
Steven Sinofsky@stevesi#1976inTech

Apple Intelligence:

Apple Foundation Models!

Google Gemini -> next generation model for integrated experience ON DEVICE and/or Cloud

Image/voice/text

Second on device model: speech generation, text gen, image understanding.

Personal context, world knowledge (web answers using private cloud computer), actions (find right app to use), on screen (tailored based on app) --> system orchestrator

All privacy first.

Seems exactly what would be expected.

Big question: third party model access on iphoneOS/ipadOS

10:33 AM · Jun 8, 2026 · 8.5K Views
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Many users are positive about Apple's on-device foundation models for Intelligence features because they show continued innovation and clever strategy.

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Andrew Mayne@AndrewMayne

I’ve been playing with Apple’s on device models and testing them out with different tasks and harnesses.

The current ones are more useful than people realize, and the next ones will be even more capable.

They create a great option for people who want to build on device applications.

Chubby♨️@kimmonismus

Apple's new foundation models are genuinely exciting. The standout is AFM 3 Core Advanced, a 20-billion (!) parameter model that runs entirely on-device.

Read that again. 20-billion, on-device, iPhone 17 Pro.

It pulls this off by keeping the full model in flash memory and loading only a small slice of "experts" into active memory for each prompt, just 1 to 4 billion parameters at a time. That's a clever way to get around the usual DRAM wall, and it's what unlocks things like expressive voices and much sharper dictation right on the device.

The whole family of five models was built in collaboration with Google. It spans these on-device models all the way up to server-based ones running on Private Cloud Compute, with the most demanding cloud model running on NVIDIA GPUs.

Kudos, Apple!

1dViews 24.1KLikes 140Bookmarks 44
Steven Sinofsky@stevesi

A few privacy questions about Siri App and history. Can't wait to try.

Private/temp mode? History auto delete? Separate app level access? Protected chats/projects?

etc.

2dViews 1.9KLikes 5Bookmarks 2
Hira@Hiraweb3

@stevesi apple really out here playing 4d chess

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Secta@0xSecta

@dwr defaults shape adoption more than quality

access to data and screens is the real edge

1dViews 7
Orin@OrinBase

@dwr given apple’s advantage in privileged access to personal data and on device processing, which factor do you think will matter more in the next two years raw model power or deep ecosystem integration and privacy?

1dViews 7