Meta and Apple have announced a collaboration that will allow developers to run Meta’s new open-weight artificial intelligence model, Muse Spark Open, on Apple’s high-end Mac Studio desktop computers.
The partnership, announced on Thursday, will enable developers to use the AI model for coding, video analysis and other tasks involving autonomous AI agents, with the technology running locally on users’ computers rather than relying on cloud services.
According to Meta, Muse Spark Open is an 816-billion-parameter model released under a licence permitting limited commercial use. Its open-weight design allows developers to download the model’s parameters and run it on compatible hardware.
Users will be able to connect between two and four Mac Studio computers to operate the model. The companies said running the technology locally could enhance security and reduce costs associated with cloud computing.
Meta’s Chief AI Officer, Alexandr Wang, said many powerful open-weight models are too large to run on most personal computers, but Apple’s Mac Studio systems provide the memory capacity needed to make Muse Spark Open practical for developers.
Wang said the collaboration had been designed to bring advanced AI agent capabilities to users’ desktops through Apple’s M5 Ultra-powered Mac Studio computers.
Developers can download the model from platforms such as Hugging Face without requiring additional configuration for Apple’s silicon. Meta has also optimised the model to run faster on Apple hardware.
Apple published technical documentation outlining how its MLX artificial intelligence framework can distribute open-source models across multiple computers. The company also released new benchmarks for its chips.
However, running the model requires substantial investment in hardware. A Mac Studio equipped with the required M5 Ultra chip and 256GB of memory costs at least 10,799 dollars, while a more expensive version with 512GB of memory is expected later in October. Users will also need multiple machines to run the model as described by the companies.
Meta Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg, welcomed the collaboration in a post on X, sharing an image of a Meta AI agent running on a Mac computer.
“ Muse Spark Open — weights releasing today — runs great on new Mac Studios thanks to work with @johnternus and Apple,” Zuckerberg wrote.
Apple Chief Executive Officer, John Ternus, also praised the development, saying the Mac Studio could efficiently run an AI model of Muse Spark Open’s scale directly from users’ desks.
The partnership marks a notable development in relations between the two technology companies, whose leaders have clashed publicly over privacy, business practices and control of digital platforms.
Apple’s privacy changes in 2021 restricted the ability of digital advertising companies to track users across applications. Meta estimated in early 2022 that the changes would reduce its revenue that year by 10 billion dollars.
Apple and Meta previously collaborated on iPhone integrations more than a decade ago, but their public partnerships largely ended after Apple removed system-level Facebook integration from the iPhone in 2017.
Wang acknowledged the companies’ difficult history but identified the presence of AI researcher and former Apple director Daniel Gross on Meta’s team as one factor behind the collaboration.
Meta’s latest move also reflects its continuing efforts to expand its artificial intelligence capabilities. The company previously concentrated on its open-weight Llama models before shifting greater attention towards proprietary AI systems under Wang’s leadership.
Although Muse Spark Open is not as advanced as Meta’s proprietary Muse Wonder model, released earlier this week, Wang said the open-weight version could attract developers and companies seeking to experiment with AI before expanding their use of the technology.
“These aren’t the most capable models that we’ve developed or released,” Wang said, adding that the company expects developers to begin using the model on a smaller scale before increasing their adoption.
For Apple, the collaboration represents another step in its efforts to strengthen its artificial intelligence offering and demonstrate the capabilities of its chips.
The company has also partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Siri and reached an agreement with Google to use its Gemini models in Apple Intelligence.
However, Apple’s AI strategy has faced criticism from investors and customers over the performance of its latest Siri offering compared with competing chatbots and AI agents.
Meta, meanwhile, has been investing heavily in AI development as it seeks to establish itself as a leading player in the sector and identify new business opportunities beyond its advertising-dependent operations.
Neither company disclosed whether the Muse Spark Open collaboration would lead to a broader partnership.
Boluwatife Enome
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