PrismML, a startup that uses mathematical wizardry to shrink the size of large language models, could be used to bring more advanced AI capabilities to iPhones in the future.
The company has already been able to compress the 54GB Qwen 3.6 model to just 4GB. And, importantly, the technology that it uses doesn't impact the model's performance.
Apple is already keen to find ways to shrink LLMs that would normally run on servers. The company prefers such models to run on-device, but has so far been limited by the huge amount of data that more advanced models require.
Now, according to a report by The Information, Apple has identified PrismML as a potential partner in its AI-shrinking efforts.
Billions of parameters
The Qwen 3.6 model is so large because of its 27 billion parameters, a figure that allows it to perform more advanced tasks than smaller models. The models that run on phones normally have just a few billion parameters, limiting their capabilities.
It's reported that the Qwen 3.6 model that PrismML has already made to work on an iPhone is capable of complex chat and reasoning. It can also power fully autonomous agents.
While Apple is already working to shrink models for iPhone use, performance has been an issue. But PrismML's technology has no such issue, making it particularly appealing.
With that in mind, it's no surprise that Apple would take notice. The report claims the company has already held meetings with PrismML to discuss the ways its technology could be used to bring more advanced AI technologies to the iPhone.
Ultimately, there's no guarantee the two companies will work together. And even if they do, it's unknown when iPhone and Siri AI owners could expect to benefit from the partnership.
