“You can provide the foundation models with tools that it can call when it doesn’t know how to do something…. Each tool can actually be a perfect oracle, unlike the language model, where it can just make up answers,” said Soghoian.
What happens in AFM, stays in AFM
The thing is, all the automation takes place on the device. Case and Soghoian are advocates for this approach, as it means their customers can work with confidential information while maintaining complete privacy. Given the cost of computers, components, and computing, less is most certainly more, so it makes sense to bring AI services out of the cloud and onto the device, which is precisely what Apple’s approach seems to be.
“The exciting thing about what Apple is doing from our point of view with these Foundation Models is that they’re running on the silicon that is already at our fingertips, right?” said Case. “We’re not going off and hitting somebody else’s server in the cloud and using who knows how much energy to do whatever it’s trying to do.
