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.

Hello, Could you please provide details for maximum string length of the prompt and the title when using ImageCreator and the method extracted(from:title:)? static func extracted( from text: String, title: String? = nil ) -> ImagePlaygroundConcept Any additional details or example of prompt and title would help. Additionally, are ImagePlaygroundStyle.animation, ImagePlaygroundStyle.illustration and ImagePlaygroundStyle.sketch all available when using extracted(from:title:)? I am trying to generate images programmatically and would appreciate your guidance. Thank you.

We built an open-source macOS menu bar app that turns speech into text and pastes it into the active app — using SpeechAnalyzer for on-device transcription, ScreenCaptureKit + Vision for screen-aware context, and FluidAudio for speaker diarization in meeting mode. Here's what we learned shipping it on macOS 26. GitHub: github.com/Marvinngg/ambient-voice Architecture The app has two modes: hotkey dictation (press to talk, release to inject) and meeting recording (continuous transcription with a floating panel). Dictation Mode Audio capture uses AVCaptureSession (more on why below). The captured audio feeds into SpeechAnalyzer via an AsyncStream: let transcriber = SpeechTranscriber( locale: locale, transcriptionOptions: [], reportingOptions: [.volatileResults, .alternativeTranscriptions], attributeOptions: [.audioTimeRange, .transcriptionConfidence] ) let analyzer = SpeechAnalyzer(modules: [transcriber]) let (inputSequence, inputBuilder) = AsyncStream.makeStream() try await analyzer.start(inputSequence: inputSequence) While recording, we capture a screenshot of the focused window using ScreenCaptureKit, run Vision OCR (VNRecognizeTextRequest), extract keywords, and inject them into SpeechAnalyzer as contextual bias: let context = AnalysisContext() context.contextualStrings[.general] = ocrKeywords try await analyzer.setContext(context) This improves accuracy for technical terms and proper nouns visible on screen. If your screen shows "SpeechAnalyzer", saying it out loud is more likely to be transcribed correctly. After transcription, an optional L2 step sends the text through a local LLM (ollama) for spoken-to-written cleanup, then CGEvent simulates Cmd+V to paste into the active app. Meeting Mode Meeting mode forks the same audio stream to two consumers: SpeechAnalyzer — real-time streaming transcription, displayed in a floating NSPanel FluidAudio buffer — accumulates 16kHz Float32 mono samples for batch speaker diarization after recording stops When the user ends the meeting, FluidAudio's performCompleteDiarization() runs on the accumulated audio. We align transcription segments with speaker segments using audioTimeRange overlap matching — each transcription segment gets assigned the speaker ID with the most time overlap. Results export to Markdown. Pitfalls We Hit on macOS 26 1. AVAudioEngine installTap doesn't fire with Bluetooth devices We started with AVAudioEngine.inputNode.installTap() for audio capture. It worked fine with built-in mics but the tap callback never fired with Bluetooth devices (tested with vivo TWS 4 Hi-Fi). Fix: switched to AVCaptureSession. The delegate callback captureOutput(_:didOutput:from:) fires reliably regardless of audio device. The tradeoff is you get CMSampleBuffer instead of AVAudioPCMBuffer, so you need a conversion step. 2. NSEvent addGlobalMonitorForEvents crashes Our global hotkey listener used NSEvent.addGlobalMonitorForEvents. On macOS 26, this crashes with a Bus error inside GlobalObserverHandler — appears to be a Swift actor runtime issue. Fix: switched to CGEventTap. Works reliably, but the callback runs on a CFRunLoop context, which Swift doesn't recognize as MainActor. 3. CGEventTap callbacks aren't on MainActor If your CGEventTap callback touches any @MainActor state, you'll get concurrency violations. The callback runs on whatever thread owns the CFRunLoop. Fix: bridge with DispatchQueue.main.async {} inside the tap callback before touching any MainActor state. 4. CGPreflightScreenCaptureAccess doesn't request permission We used CGPreflightScreenCaptureAccess() as a guard before calling ScreenCaptureKit. If it returned false, we'd bail out. The problem: this function only checks — it never triggers macOS to add your app to the Screen Recording permission list. Chicken-and-egg: you can't get permission because you never ask for it. Fix: call CGRequestScreenCaptureAccess() at app startup. This adds your app to System Settings → Screen Recording. Then let ScreenCaptureKit calls proceed without the preflight guard — SCShareableContent will also trigger the permission prompt on first use. 5. Ad-hoc signing breaks TCC permissions on every rebuild During development, codesign --sign - (ad-hoc) generates a different code directory hash on every build. macOS TCC tracks permissions by this hash, so every rebuild = new app identity = all permissions reset. Fix: sign with a stable certificate. If you have an Apple Development certificate, use that. The TeamIdentifier stays constant across rebuilds, so TCC permissions persist. We also discovered that launching via open WE.app (LaunchServices) instead of directly executing the binary is required — otherwise macOS attributes TCC permissions to Terminal, not your app. Benchmarks We ran end-to-end benchmarks on public datasets (Mac Mini M4 16GB, macOS 26): Transcription (SpeechAnalyzer, AliMeeting Chinese): • Near-field CER 34% (excluding outliers ~25%) • Far-field CER 40% (single channel, no beamforming, >30% overlap) • Processing speed 74-89x real-time Speaker diarization (FluidAudio offline): • AMI English 16 meetings: avg DER 23.2% (collar=0.25s, ignoreOverlap=True) • AliMeeting Chinese 8 meetings: DER 48.5% (including overlap regions) • Memory: RSS ~500MB, peak 730-930MB Full evaluation methodology, scripts, and raw results are in the repo. Open Source The project is MIT licensed: github.com/Marvinngg/ambient-voice It includes the macOS client (Swift 6.2, SPM), server-side distillation/training scripts (Python), and a complete evaluation framework with reproducible benchmarks. Feedback and contributions welcome.

We built an open-source macOS menu bar app that turns speech into text and pastes it into the active app — using SpeechAnalyzer for on-device transcription, ScreenCaptureKit + Vision for screen-aware context, and FluidAudio for speaker diarization in meeting mode. Here's what we learned shipping it on macOS 26. GitHub: github.com/Marvinngg/ambient-voice Architecture The app has two modes: hotkey dictation (press to talk, release to inject) and meeting recording (continuous transcription with a floating panel). Dictation Mode Audio capture uses AVCaptureSession (more on why below). The captured audio feeds into SpeechAnalyzer via an AsyncStream: let transcriber = SpeechTranscriber( locale: locale, transcriptionOptions: [], reportingOptions: [.volatileResults, .alternativeTranscriptions], attributeOptions: [.audioTimeRange, .transcriptionConfidence] ) let analyzer = SpeechAnalyzer(modules: [transcriber]) let (inputSequence, inputBuilder) = AsyncStream.makeStream() try await analyzer.start(inputSequence: inputSequence) While recording, we capture a screenshot of the focused window using ScreenCaptureKit, run Vision OCR (VNRecognizeTextRequest), extract keywords, and inject them into SpeechAnalyzer as contextual bias: let context = AnalysisContext() context.contextualStrings[.general] = ocrKeywords try await analyzer.setContext(context) This improves accuracy for technical terms and proper nouns visible on screen. If your screen shows "SpeechAnalyzer", saying it out loud is more likely to be transcribed correctly. After transcription, an optional L2 step sends the text through a local LLM (ollama) for spoken-to-written cleanup, then CGEvent simulates Cmd+V to paste into the active app. Meeting Mode Meeting mode forks the same audio stream to two consumers: SpeechAnalyzer — real-time streaming transcription, displayed in a floating NSPanel FluidAudio buffer — accumulates 16kHz Float32 mono samples for batch speaker diarization after recording stops When the user ends the meeting, FluidAudio's performCompleteDiarization() runs on the accumulated audio. We align transcription segments with speaker segments using audioTimeRange overlap matching — each transcription segment gets assigned the speaker ID with the most time overlap. Results export to Markdown. Pitfalls We Hit on macOS 26 1. AVAudioEngine installTap doesn't fire with Bluetooth devices We started with AVAudioEngine.inputNode.installTap() for audio capture. It worked fine with built-in mics but the tap callback never fired with Bluetooth devices (tested with vivo TWS 4 Hi-Fi). Fix: switched to AVCaptureSession. The delegate callback captureOutput(_:didOutput:from:) fires reliably regardless of audio device. The tradeoff is you get CMSampleBuffer instead of AVAudioPCMBuffer, so you need a conversion step. 2. NSEvent addGlobalMonitorForEvents crashes Our global hotkey listener used NSEvent.addGlobalMonitorForEvents. On macOS 26, this crashes with a Bus error inside GlobalObserverHandler — appears to be a Swift actor runtime issue. Fix: switched to CGEventTap. Works reliably, but the callback runs on a CFRunLoop context, which Swift doesn't recognize as MainActor. 3. CGEventTap callbacks aren't on MainActor If your CGEventTap callback touches any @MainActor state, you'll get concurrency violations. The callback runs on whatever thread owns the CFRunLoop. Fix: bridge with DispatchQueue.main.async {} inside the tap callback before touching any MainActor state. 4. CGPreflightScreenCaptureAccess doesn't request permission We used CGPreflightScreenCaptureAccess() as a guard before calling ScreenCaptureKit. If it returned false, we'd bail out. The problem: this function only checks — it never triggers macOS to add your app to the Screen Recording permission list. Chicken-and-egg: you can't get permission because you never ask for it. Fix: call CGRequestScreenCaptureAccess() at app startup. This adds your app to System Settings → Screen Recording. Then let ScreenCaptureKit calls proceed without the preflight guard — SCShareableContent will also trigger the permission prompt on first use. 5. Ad-hoc signing breaks TCC permissions on every rebuild During development, codesign --sign - (ad-hoc) generates a different code directory hash on every build. macOS TCC tracks permissions by this hash, so every rebuild = new app identity = all permissions reset. Fix: sign with a stable certificate. If you have an Apple Development certificate, use that. The TeamIdentifier stays constant across rebuilds, so TCC permissions persist. We also discovered that launching via open WE.app (LaunchServices) instead of directly executing the binary is required — otherwise macOS attributes TCC permissions to Terminal, not your app. Benchmarks We ran end-to-end benchmarks on public datasets (Mac Mini M4 16GB, macOS 26): Transcription (SpeechAnalyzer, AliMeeting Chinese): • Near-field CER 34% (excluding outliers ~25%) • Far-field CER 40% (single channel, no beamforming, >30% overlap) • Processing speed 74-89x real-time Speaker diarization (FluidAudio offline): • AMI English 16 meetings: avg DER 23.2% (collar=0.25s, ignoreOverlap=True) • AliMeeting Chinese 8 meetings: DER 48.5% (including overlap regions) • Memory: RSS ~500MB, peak 730-930MB Full evaluation methodology, scripts, and raw results are in the repo. Open Source The project is MIT licensed: github.com/Marvinngg/ambient-voice It includes the macOS client (Swift 6.2, SPM), server-side distillation/training scripts (Python), and a complete evaluation framework with reproducible benchmarks. Feedback and contributions welcome.

In macOS Tahoe 26.2 an RDMA capability was added for Thunderbolt-5 interfaces. This has been demonstrated to significantly decrease the latency and maintain bandwidth for "clustered" Apple Silicon devices with TB5. What is the ideal and the maximum RDMA burst width for transfers over RDMA-enabled Thunderbolt-5 interfaces?

Hi, I'm building ANF (Autonomous Native Forge) — a cloud-free, 4-agent autonomous software production pipeline running on local hardware with local LLM inference. No middleware, pure Node.js native. Currently running on NVIDIA Blackwell GB10 with vLLM + DeepSeek-R1-32B. Now porting to Apple Silicon. Three technical questions: How production-ready is mlx-lm's OpenAI-compatible API server for long context generation (32K tokens)? What's the recommended approach for KV Cache management with Unified Memory architecture — any specific flags or configurations for M4 Ultra? MLX vs GGUF (llama.cpp) for a multi-agent pipeline where 4 agents call the inference endpoint concurrently — which handles parallel requests better on Apple Silicon? GitHub: github.com/trgysvc/AutonomousNativeForge Any guidance appreciated.

I am developing a macOS application using SwiftUI (with an iOS version as well). One feature we are exploring is displaying an avatar that reads or speaks dynamically generated text produced by an AI service. The basic flow would be: Text generated by an AI service Text converted to speech using a TTS engine An avatar (2D or 3D) rendered in the app that animates lip movement synchronized with the speech Ideally the avatar would render locally on the device. Questions: What Apple frameworks would be most appropriate for implementing a speaking avatar? SceneKit RealityKit SpriteKit (for 2D avatars) Is there any recommended way to drive lip-sync animation from speech audio using Apple frameworks? Does AVSpeechSynthesizer expose phoneme or viseme timing information that could be used for avatar animation? If such timing information is not available, what is the recommended approach for synchronizing character mouth animation with speech audio on macOS/iOS? Are there examples of real-time character animation synchronized with speech on macOS/iOS? Any architectural guidance or references would be greatly appreciated.

Hello, My goal is to enable users to perform a freeform search request for any product I sell using a spoken phrase, for example, "Hey Siri, search GAMING CONSOLES on MyCatalogApp". The result would launch MyCatalogApp and navigate to a search results page displaying gaming consoles. I have defined a SearchIntent (using the .system.search schema) and a Shortcut to accomplish this. However, Siri doesn't seem to be able to correctly parse the spoken phrase, extract the search string, and provide it as the critiria term within SearchIntent. What am I doing wrong? Here is the SearchIntent. Note the print() statement outputs the search string--which in the scenario above would be "GAMING CONSOLES"--but it doesn't work. import AppIntents @available(iOS 17.2, *) @AppIntent(schema: .system.search) struct SearchIntent: ShowInAppSearchResultsIntent { static var searchScopes: [StringSearchScope] = [.general] @Parameter(title: "Criteria") var criteria: StringSearchCriteria static var title: LocalizedStringResource = "Search with MyCatalogApp" @MainActor func perform() async throws -> some IntentResult { let searchString = criteria.term print("**** Search String: \(searchString) ****") // tmp debugging try await MyCatalogSearchHelper.search(for: searchString) // fetch results via my async fetch API return .result() } } Here's the Shortcuts definition: import AppIntents @available(iOS 17.2, *) struct Shortcuts: AppShortcutsProvider { @AppShortcutsBuilder static var appShortcuts: [AppShortcut] { AppShortcut( intent: SearchIntent(), phrases: ["Search for \(\.$criteria) on \(.applicationName)."], shortTitle: "Search", systemImageName: "magnifyingglass" ) } } Thanks for any help!

I opened a new project, iOS app, in XCode and then tabbed into the system_search snippet and built the project and got a build error. I can't imagine this was intended, at least not for new developers to the ecosystem like me. I solved it by tweaking a configuration I don't really understand advised here: https://github.com/apple/swift-openapi-generator/issues/796, hopefully that's a valid workaround

I am trying to use @AppIntent(schema: .system.search) to search in my app via a Siri voice command, but I want to be able to return a .result that does not open the app, yet still get the model training benefits from the schema. Very new to this, this is my first app, so I would appreciate some guidance. I haven't gotten to the voice part, I tested on Shortcuts. Do I need to do AppIntents without the schema and wait until there is a search schema that does not open the app, or should I be using a different schema? What am I missing?

I don't know if these forums are any good for rumors or plans, but does anybody know whether or not Apple plans to release a library for training reinforcement learning? It would be handy, implementing games in Swift, for example, to be able to train the computer players on the same code.

Subject: Technical Report: Float32 Precision Ceiling & Memory Fragmentation in JAX/Metal Workloads on M3 To: Metal Developer Relations Hello, I am reporting a repeatable numerical saturation point encountered during sustained recursive high-order differential workloads on the Apple M3 (16 GB unified memory) using the JAX Metal backend. Workload Characteristics: Large-scale vector projections across multi-dimensional industrial datasets Repeated high-order finite-difference calculations Heavy use of jax.grad and lax.cond inside long-running loops Observation: Under these conditions, the Metal/MPS backend consistently enters a terminal quantization lock where outputs saturate at a fixed scalar value (2.0000), followed by system-wide NaN propagation. This appears to be a precision-limited boundary in the JAX-Metal bridge when handling high-order operations with cubic time-scale denominators. have identified the specific threshold where recursive high-order tensor derivatives exceed the numerical resolution of 32-bit consumer architectures, necessitating a migration to a dedicated 64-bit industrial stack. I have prepared a minimal synthetic test script (randomized vectors only, no proprietary logic) that reliably reproduces the allocator fragmentation and saturation behavior. Let me know if your team would like the telemetry for XLA/MPS optimization purposes. Best regards, Alex Severson Architect, QuantumPulse AI

We get two error message in Xcode debug. apple.model.catalog we get 1 time at startup, and the nw_protocol_instance_set_output_handler Not calling remove_input_handler on 0x152ac3c00:udp we get on sartup and some time during running of the app. I have tested cutoff repos WS eg. But nothing helpss, thats for the nw_protocol. We have a fondationmodel in a repo but we check if it is available if not we do not touch it. Please help me? nw_protocol_instance_set_output_handler Not calling remove_input_handler on 0x152ac3c00:udp com.apple.modelcatalog.catalog sync: connection error during call: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4099 "The connection to service named com.apple.modelcatalog.catalog was invalidated: Connection init failed at lookup with error 159 - Sandbox restriction." UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=The connection to service named com.apple.modelcatalog.catalog was invalidated: Connection init failed at lookup with error 159 - Sandbox restriction.} reached max num connection attempts: 1 The function we have in the repo is this: public actor FoundationRepo: JobDescriptionChecker, SubskillSuggester { private var session: LanguageModelSession? private let isEnabled: Bool private let shouldUseLocalFoundation: Bool private let baseURLString = "https://xx.xx.xxx/xx" private let http: HTTPPac public init(http: HTTPPac, isEnabled: Bool = true) { self.http = http self.isEnabled = isEnabled self.session = nil guard isEnabled else { self.shouldUseLocalFoundation = false return } let model = SystemLanguageModel.default guard model.supportsLocale() else { self.shouldUseLocalFoundation = false return } switch model.availability { case .available: self.shouldUseLocalFoundation = true case .unavailable(.deviceNotEligible), .unavailable(.appleIntelligenceNotEnabled), .unavailable(.modelNotReady): self.shouldUseLocalFoundation = false @unknown default: self.shouldUseLocalFoundation = false } } So here we decide if we are going to use iPhone ML or my backend-remote?

Environment: Hardware: Mac M4 OS: macOS Sequoia 15.7.4 TensorFlow-macOS Version: 2.16.2 TensorFlow-metal Version: 1.2.0 Description: When using the tensorflow-metal plug-in for GPU acceleration on M4, the ReLU activation function (both as a layer and as an activation argument) fails to correctly clip negative values to zero. The same code works correctly when forced to run on the CPU. Reproduction Script: import os import numpy as np import tensorflow as tf # weights and biases = -1 weights = [np.ones((10, 5)) * -1, np.ones(5) * -1] # input = 1 data = np.ones((1, 10)) # comment this line => GPU => get negative values # uncomment this line => CPU => no negative values # tf.config.set_visible_devices([], 'GPU') # create model model = tf.keras.Sequential([ tf.keras.layers.Input(shape=(10,)), tf.keras.layers.Dense(5, activation='relu') ]) # set weights model.layers[0].set_weights(weights) # get output output = model.predict(data) # check if negative is present print(f"min value: {output.min()}") print(f"is negative present? {np.any(output < 0)}")

Can't able to run the Create ML for training and I upgraded to MacOS 26.3 beta and I have tried older and newer

When doing some exploratory research into using Apple Intelligence in our aviation-focused application, I noticed that there were several times that key phases would be marked as inappropriate. I tried to stifle these using prompts and rules but couldn't get it to take hold. I was encouraged by an Apple employee to go ahead and post this so that the AI team can use the feedback. There were several terms that triggered this warning, but the two that were most prominent were: 'Tailwind' 'JFK' or 'KJFK' (NY airport ICAO/IATA codes)

Reading all the docs(1) I was under the impression that handling this error is well managed... Until I hit it and found out that the recommended handling options hide a crucial fact: in the catch block you can not do anything?! It's too late - everything is lost, no way to recover... All the docs mislead me that I can apply the Transcript trick in the catch block until I realised, that there is nothing there !!! This article here(2) enlightened me on the handling of this problem, but I must say (and the author as well) - this is a hack! So my questions: is there really no way to handle this exception properly? if not, can we have the most important information - the count of the context exposed through the official API (at least the known ones)? https://developer.apple.com/documentation/Technotes/tn3193-managing-the-on-device-foundation-model-s-context-window#Handle-the-exceeding-context-window-size-error-elegantly https://zats.io/blog/making-the-most-of-apple-foundation-models-context-window/

After exerting a custom model with nms=True. In Xcode, the outputs show as: confidence: MultiArray (0 × 5) coordinates: MultiArray (0 × 4) I want to set fixed shapes (e.g., 100 × 5, 100 × 4), but Xcode does not allow editing—the shape fields are locked. The model graph shows both outputs come directly from a NonMaximumSuppression layer. Is it possible to set fixed output dimensions for NMS outputs in CoreML?

Hello, I’m experiencing a severe performance degradation when running CoreML models on a live AVFoundation video feed compared to offline or synthetic inference. This happens across multiple models I've converted (including SCI, RTMPose, and RTMW) and affects multiple devices. The Environment OS: macOS 26.3, iOS 26.3, iPadOS 26.3 Hardware: Mac14,6 (M2 Max), iPad Pro 11 M1, iPhone 13 mini Compute Units: cpuAndNeuralEngine The Numbers When testing my SCI_output_image_int8.mlpackage model, the inference timings are drastically different: Synthetic/Offline Inference: ~1.34 ms Live Camera Inference: ~15.96 ms Preprocessing is completely ruled out as the bottleneck. My profiling shows total preprocessing (nearest-neighbor resize + feature provider creation) takes only ~0.4 ms in camera mode. Furthermore, no frames are being dropped. What I've Tried I am building a latency-critical app and have implemented almost every recommended optimization to try and fix this, but the camera-feed penalty remains: Matched the AVFoundation camera output format exactly to the model input (640x480 at 30/60fps). Used IOSurface-backed pixel buffers for everything (camera output, synthetic buffer, and resize buffer). Enabled outputBackings. Loaded the model once and reused it for all predictions. Configured MLModelConfiguration with reshapeFrequency = .frequent and specializationStrategy = .fastPrediction. Wrapped inference in ProcessInfo.processInfo.beginActivity(options: .latencyCritical, reason: "CoreML_Inference"). Set DispatchQueue to qos: .userInteractive. Disabled the idle timer and enabled iOS Game Mode. Exported models using coremltools 9.0 (deployment target iOS 26) with ImageType inputs/outputs and INT8 quantization. Reproduction To completely rule out UI or rendering overhead, I wrote a standalone Swift CLI script that isolates the AVFoundation and CoreML pipeline. The script clearly demonstrates the ~15ms latency on live camera frames versus the ~1ms latency on synthetic buffers. (I have attached camera_coreml_benchmark.swift and coreml model (very light low light enghancement model) to this repo on github https://github.com/pzoltowski/apple-coreml-camera-latency-repro). My Question: Is this massive overhead expected behavior for AVFoundation + Core ML on live feeds, or is this a framework/runtime bug? If expected, what is the Apple-recommended pattern to bypass this camera-only inference slowdown? One think found interesting when running in debug model was faster (not as fast as in performance benchmark but faster than 16ms. Also somehow if I did some dummy calculation on on different DispatchQueue also seems like model got slightly faster. So maybe its related to ANE Power State issues (Jitter/SoC Wake) and going to fast to sleep and taking a long time to wakeup? Doing dummy calculation in background thought is probably not a solution. Thanks in advance for any insights!

Optimal Precision • Current Precision: Mixed (Float32, int32) • Optimal Precision: Not specified in the image, but typically involves using the most efficient data type for the model's operations to balance speed and memory usage without significant loss of accuracy. Comparison: • Mixed Precision: Utilizes both Float32 and int32 to optimize performance. Float32 provides high precision, while int32 reduces memory usage and increases computational speed. • Optimal Precision: Aimed at achieving the best trade-off between performance and accuracy, potentially using other data types like Float16 (bfloat16) for even greater efficiency in certain hardware environments. Operation Distribution • Current Distribution: • iOS18.mul: 168 • iOS18.transpose: 126 • iOS18.linear: 98 • iOS18.add: 97 • iOS18.sliceByIndex: 96 • iOS18.expandDims: 74 • iOS18.concat: 72 • iOS18.squeeze: 72 • iOS18.reshape: 67 • iOS18.layerNorm: 49 • iOS18.matmul: 48 • iOS18.gelu: 26 • iOS18.softmax: 24 • Split: 24 • conv: 1 • iOS18.conv: 1 Comparison: • Operation Count: Indicates how frequently each operation is executed. High counts for operations like mul, transpose, and linear suggest these are computationally intensive parts of the model. • Optimization Opportunities: Reducing the count of high-frequency operations or optimizing their execution can improve performance. This might involve pruning unnecessary operations, optimizing algorithms, or leveraging hardware acceleration. General Recommendations • Precision Tuning: Experiment with different precision levels to find the best balance for your specific hardware and accuracy requirements. • Operation Optimization: Focus on optimizing the most frequent operations. Techniques include using more efficient algorithms, parallelizing computations, or utilizing specialized hardware like GPUs or TPUs. • Benchmarking: Regularly benchmark the model to assess the impact of changes and ensure that optimizations lead to meaningful performance improvements. By focusing on these areas, you can potentially enhance the efficiency and performance of your ML model.

Recursive and Self-Referential Data Structures Combining recursive and self-referential data structures with frameworks like Accelerate, SwiftMacros, and utilizing SwiftUI hooks can offer significant benefits in terms of performance, maintainability, and expressiveness. Here is how Apple Intelligence breaks it down. Benefits: Natural Representation of Complex Data: Recursive structures, such as trees and graphs, are ideal for representing hierarchical or interconnected data, like file systems, social networks, and DOM trees. Simplified Algorithms: Many algorithms, such as traversals, sorting, and searching, are more straightforward and elegant when implemented using recursion. Dynamic Memory Management: Self-referential structures can dynamically grow and shrink, making them suitable for applications with unpredictable data sizes. Challenges: Performance Overhead: Recursive algorithms can lead to stack overflow if not properly optimized (e.g., using tail recursion). Self-referential structures can introduce memory management challenges, such as retain cycles. Accelerate Framework Benefits: High-Performance Computation: Accelerate provides optimized libraries for numerical and scientific computing, including linear algebra, FFT, and image processing. It can significantly speed up computations, especially for large datasets, by leveraging multi-core processors and GPU acceleration. Parallel Processing: Accelerate automatically parallelizes operations, making it easier to take advantage of modern hardware capabilities. Integration with Recursive Data: Matrix and Vector Operations: Use Accelerate for operations on matrices and vectors, which are common in recursive algorithms like those used in machine learning and physics simulations. FFT and Convolutions: Accelerate's FFT functions can be used in recursive algorithms for signal processing and image analysis. SwiftMacros Benefits: Code Generation and Transformation: SwiftMacros allow you to generate and transform code at compile time, enabling the creation of DSLs, boilerplate reduction, and optimization. Improved Compile-Time Checks: Macros can perform complex compile-time checks, ensuring code correctness and reducing runtime errors. Integration with Recursive Data: DSL for Data Structures: Create a DSL using SwiftMacros to define recursive data structures concisely and safely. Optimization: Use macros to generate optimized code for recursive algorithms, such as memoization or iterative transformations. SwiftUI Hooks Benefits: State Management: Hooks like @State, @Binding, and @Effect simplify state management in SwiftUI, making it easier to handle dynamic data. Side Effects: @Effect allows you to perform side effects in a declarative manner, integrating seamlessly with asynchronous operations. Reusable Logic: Custom hooks enable the reuse of stateful logic across multiple views, promoting code maintainability. Integration with Recursive Data: Dynamic Data Binding: Use SwiftUI's data binding to manage the state of recursive data structures, ensuring that UI updates reflect changes in the underlying data. Efficient Rendering: SwiftUI's diffing algorithm efficiently updates the UI only for the parts of the recursive structure that have changed, improving performance. Asynchronous Data Loading: Combine @Effect with recursive data structures to fetch and process data asynchronously, such as loading a tree structure from a remote server. Example: Combining All Components Imagine you're building an app that visualizes a hierarchical file system using a recursive tree structure. Here's how you might combine these components: Define the Recursive Data Structure: Use SwiftMacros to create a DSL for defining tree nodes. @macro struct TreeNode { var value: T var children: [TreeNode] } Optimize with Accelerate: Use Accelerate for operations like computing the size of the tree or performing transformations on node values. func computeTreeSize(_ node: TreeNode) -> Int { return node.children.reduce(1) { $0 + computeTreeSize($1) } } Manage State with SwiftUI Hooks: Use SwiftUI hooks to load and display the tree structure dynamically. struct FileSystemView: View { @State private var rootNode: TreeNode = loadTree() var body: some View { TreeView(node: rootNode) } private func loadTree() -> TreeNode<String> { // Load or generate the tree structure } } struct TreeView: View { let node: TreeNode var body: some View { List(node.children, id: \.value) { Text($0.value) TreeView(node: $0) } } } Perform Side Effects with @Effect: Use @Effect to fetch data asynchronously and update the tree structure. struct FileSystemView: View { @State private var rootNode: TreeNode = TreeNode(value: "/") @Effect private var loadTreeEffect: () -> Void = { // Fetch data from a server or database } var body: some View { TreeView(node: rootNode) .onAppear { loadTreeEffect() } } } By combining recursive data structures with Accelerate, SwiftMacros, and SwiftUI hooks, you can create powerful, efficient, and maintainable applications that handle complex data with ease.