In an unexpected display of cooperation, traditional rivals Meta and Apple have joined forces for the launch of Muse Spark Open. Meta announced the new AI model today, claiming it is the "most capable US open-weight model to date."
High-Performance AI on the Desktop
Muse Spark Open distinguishes itself as the first model in its class capable of running on a desktop environment using two Apple M5 Ultra Mac Studios equipped with the latest MLX framework. Meta describes the release as a "natively multimodal model" featuring 816 billion total parameters. It is specifically designed to excel at long-horizon tasks, complex software engineering, and multi-step reasoning.
A Rare Strategic Alliance
The CEOs of both tech giants have publicly endorsed the collaboration. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted on X that the model "runs great on new Mac Studios," crediting the work with Apple's team. John Ternus, the new CEO of Apple, responded by highlighting the efficiency of running a model of such scale directly from a desk, stating that the Mac Studio continues to push the boundaries of on-device AI.
Alexandr Wang, Meta’s chief AI officer, indicated that the partnership has been in development for several months. To support the launch, Apple published a new technical post regarding MLX, its array framework optimized for machine learning tasks on Apple Silicon, showcasing its application for Muse Spark Open and other open models.
