Apple and Meta Collaborate to Bring AI Power to Mac

In a surprising but significant development, Apple and Meta have partnered to optimize the performance of Meta’s latest open-source model, Muse Spark Open, on Apple’s Mac Studio desktops. This marks the first public collaboration between the two companies since 2017. ## Technical Achievement on the Desktop Muse Spark Open is an impressive large-scale artificial intelligence model featuring 816 billion parameters, with 42 billion active at any given time. According to Meta, this is the first instance of a model of this class operating on a desktop computer. The system requires two Mac Studio units equipped with Apple’s M5 Ultra chips and the company’s MLX framework. Users can connect between two and four computers to handle complex tasks such as coding, video analysis, or managing autonomous agents. Each Mac Studio’s GPU can utilize up to 512 gigabytes of RAM, allowing the model to be loaded in its entirety. ## Privacy and Financial Implications A primary advantage of this collaboration is user data privacy. Because the model runs locally on the user's machine, Meta cannot access the prompts or requests made by the user. However, the technology comes with a significant price tag. According to Apple, a Mac Studio with an M5 Ultra chip and 256 gigabytes of memory starts at $10,799, with a more powerful 512-gigabyte version set to launch later this month. ## A New Era in Relations Dialogue between the companies began several months ago, facilitated in large part by Daniel Gross, a former Apple director currently working at Meta. Meta’s Chief AI Officer, Alexander Wang, stated that this partnership signals a renewed willingness for constructive cooperation between the two firms. Relations had been particularly strained since 2021, when Apple’s changes to its privacy policy resulted in an estimated $10 billion loss for Meta. Apple's new CEO, John Ternus, who assumed the role on September 1, praised the project, describing the ability to run a model of this scale on a desktop as a technological breakthrough. While it remains unclear if this will lead to a broader partnership, it is evident that Apple and Meta are working together to bring advanced AI technologies directly to user workstations.