This page may contain stale information. Last updated: 2026-06-12
Definition
Core AI is Apple’s new framework for on-device AI model deployment, introduced at WWDC 2026. It provides an architecture optimized for unified memory and the Neural Engine on Apple silicon, enabling developers to run full-scale LLMs locally without cloud inference.
Key Capabilities
- On-device LLM deployment: Deploy full-scale language models on Apple silicon via
CoreAILanguageModel - Foundation Models integration: Core AI models plug into
LanguageModelSessionthrough the language-model-protocol - Model compilation: Ahead-of-time compilation via
coreai-buildfor device-specific optimization - Curated model repository: Open-source models (Qwen, Mistral, SAM3) optimized for Apple silicon
- Xcode tooling: Core AI Instruments, visual debugger tracing tensors to Python source
Architecture
Core AI spans Python tooling (model conversion, authoring, optimization) and a Swift API for inference. Models ship as .aimodel bundles inspectable in Xcode for size, platform targets, and tensor shapes.
let model = CoreAILanguageModel(modelBundle: myBundle)
let session = LanguageModelSession(model: model)
let response = try await session.respond(to: prompt)