Apple collaborated with researchers from Columbia University to release an open-source multi-modal LLM called Ferret in October 2023, but it did not attract much attention at the time.
Ferret’s announcement was missed by many in the AI community, who welcomed Apple’s unexpected entry into the open source LLM space, especially since Apple has traditionally been considered a “gated garden.”
This morning, Bart de Witte, who runs a European non-profit focused on open source AI in medicine, posted on Demonstrating Apple’s commitment to far-reaching AI research , solidifying its position as a leader in multimodal AI… ps: I look forward to the day when native large language models (LLLMs) are integrated as part of the redesigned iOS The service runs on my iPhone .”
As per the latest report from VentureBeat, Ben Dickson wrote on LinkedIn: “What is the AI development you least expect in 2023? For me, it is Apple releasing open source LLM (albeit under a non-commercial license).”
However, it is possible that it will be used in future Apple products or services in the future. Apple AI/ML research scientist Zhe Gan explained Ferret’s use in a tweet in October, saying it can “reference and locate anything anywhere in an image, at any granularity.” Any shaped area to achieve this.
In addition, Apple also faces infrastructure challenges. While Apple is working to increase the number of AI servers it has, its scale may still be insufficient compared to models like ChatGPT. In addition to working with other companies to expand its capabilities, the open source model is another path Apple is exploring.
