Apple to open AI models to developers

Apple preparing to allow third-party developers to write software using its artificial intelligence models, aiming to spur the creation of new applications and make its devices more enticing.

The iPhone maker is working on a software development kit and related frameworks that will let outsiders build AI features based on the large language models that the company uses for Apple Intelligence, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Apple expects to unveil the plan on June 9 at its Worldwide Developers Conference, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the initiative hasn’t been announced.

Apple Intelligence already powers iOS and macOS features such as notification summaries, text editing and basic image creation. The new approach would let developers integrate the underlying technology into specific features or across their full apps. To start, Apple will open up its smaller models that run on its devices, rather than the more powerful cloud-based AI models that require servers.

The move is part of a broader attempt to become a leader in generative AI — a field that has bedeviled Apple. The company launched the Apple Intelligence platform last year in a bid to catch up with rivals. But the initial features haven’t been widely used, and other AI platforms remain more powerful. The bet is that expanding the technology to developers will lead to more compelling uses for it.

A spokesperson for Cupertino, California-based Apple declined to comment.

The new plan for developers is expected to be one of the highlights of the developers conference, better known as WWDC. But the biggest announcement will likely be overhauled versions of the iPhone, iPad and Mac operating systems, part of a project dubbed Solarium. The idea is to make the interfaces more unified and cohesive. The new approach will be largely reminiscent of visionOS, the operating system on the Vision Pro headset.

In addition to letting developers write apps with Apple’s models, the company is planning an AI-powered battery management mode for consumers. It’s also developing an AI-infused Health app with a virtual wellness coach — though that software won’t be ready until 2026.

Apple Intelligence has had a rocky rollout so far. The company needed to pause AI summaries of news headlines due to errors that drew the ire of media organizations, and its Genmoji custom emoji tool sometimes creates icons that look drastically different than those in Apple’s advertisements. More useful features, like Writing Tools, rely on OpenAI’s ChatGPT for text generation.

So far, developers have only had limited ability to integrate Apple Intelligence in their apps. That includes supporting the new features for prioritizing and summarizing notifications. They could also integrate Writing Tools, Genmoji and the Image Playground app. But they haven’t been able to use underlying AI technology — known as Apple Foundation Models — to power their own artificial intelligence features.

The lack of developer access to Apple models has forced app makers to rely on technology from third parties. The company has long provided a developer framework called Core ML that can pull in open source offerings, including models focused on image classification, summarization and responses to questions. Developers can also use popular systems such as TensorFlow, which was developed by Alphabet Inc.’s Google.

Then there are the slew of AI apps from major providers on the App Store, including ChatGPT, Microsoft Corp.’s Copilot, Anthropic PBC’s Claude, xAI’s Grok and Perplexity. Those apps use their own in-house models.

Apple is hoping to replicate the early success of the App Store, which occurred after the company opened up its in-house technologies and software frameworks to developers for the first time. By offering its models and making them simple to integrate, Apple is poised to turn its operating systems into the largest software platforms for AI.

A surge in apps may also have a financial benefit. Apple takes a cut of revenue for subscriptions within apps themselves. But the App Store is under pressure from regulators globally. A US judge ruled last month that Apple must allow developers to steer customers to the web to complete purchases, bypassing the company’s revenue sharing system. A wave of new apps could soften the blow of losing out on some current sales.

Apple had planned to roll out options for app developers by now, including a new version of a feature called App Intents. That would allow product users to have more precise control over features within apps via the Siri voice assistant. The company is now aiming to introduce this capability as early as the iOS 19 release cycle, which begins in September and extends into 2026.

© 2025 Bloomberg

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