How Apple Intelligence Runs AI Locally On-Device: Architecture, Comparisons, and Privacy Explained

Apple Intelligence runs a tightly-optimized 3B parameter model directly on Apple Silicon, with extreme quantization and hardware tuning for low-latency, private on-device AI. For heavier tasks, it offloads to Apple’s own encrypted Private Cloud Compute—never logging or training on your data. Compared to open-source giants like Mistral 7B and LLaMA 2, Apple trades scale for speed, privacy, and tight integration—and still competes shockingly well.