Apple and Meta have jointly released a brand-new “open-weight” AI model, specifically designed to run on Mac computers. This is a rare collaboration between these two fiercely competitive giants.
On Thursday, two companies stated that Muse Spark Open is the downloadable version of Meta's latest AI model. Meta called it the most powerful open-source model to date, stating that it has been optimized and can now run locally on Apple's Mac Studio desktop computers.
Apple's progress in developing its own large models is lagging behind, so it continues to collaborate with companies that have stronger model capabilities. It hopes to rely on the AI function to drive hardware demand, and this collaboration is the latest move in this strategy.
Apple and Meta have had a tense relationship in the past, with both parties experiencing intense conflicts over Apple's app management policies on their devices. Meta also poached AI talents from Apple and launched VR glasses, directly competing with Apple's Vision Pro.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that this breakthrough in cooperation is thanks to the communication with Apple's newly appointed CEO John Terner in September.
Ternas responded, "It is amazing to be able to run a large model of the scale and quality of Muse Spark Open so efficiently on desktop devices."
Muse Spark Open is aimed at code assistance, while AI refers to intelligent agents (intelligent robots capable of independently performing complex tasks). Meta indicates that this model is released under limited commercial terms, allowing a large number of developers to use it for free.
Zuckerberg, as well as industry leaders such as NVIDIA Jensen Huang and AI, strongly advocate for open-source models that are downloadable, customizable, and can run on local hardware.
In contrast, mainstream closed-source models such as Anthropic and OpenAI are proprietary models and cannot be customized or modified in the same way.
Meta has also shaped its own open-source model to become a major domestic model in the United States, aiming to compete with Chinese competitors such as DeepSeek; of course, this social media giant has also launched some closed-source models in the past.
Meta Chief AI Officer Alexander Wang announced a collaboration with Apple on the X platform on Thursday, accompanied by an American flag emoji.
Meta betting on this new model series, as well as Muse personal AI assistant, supports Zuckerberg in spending tens of billions of dollars in an ambitious strategy to turn this social media company into a AI industry leader.
Apple emphasizes the privacy advantages of its local-side operating model: it relies on the high-performance chips of the new hardware for in-machine inference, eliminating the need to upload personal data to the cloud. Apple claims that a cluster consisting of 2 to 4 Mac Studio devices equipped with M5 Ultra chips is sufficient to run the most advanced large models.
Earlier this year, Tim Cook, who was then the CEO of Apple, stated that there was a surge in demand for two desktop models, Mac Mini and Mac Studio, with many users wishing to run the AI model on their local devices.
Apple is working to make up for the shortcomings of a less than smooth start in the AI arena. Previously, its significant collaboration with OpenAI turned into a fierce lawsuit over trade secrets. Earlier this year, Apple also collaborated with Google to integrate the Gemini model, providing support for the newly launched conversational Siri AI assistant last month.
Responsible Editor: Jiang Xuesi
