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drnick1yesterday at 4:47 PM3 repliesview on HN

If this isn't open source/weights and can't run locally, I don't see how this is a replacement for Whisper or other open models, e.g. within Home Assistant.


Replies

satvikpendemyesterday at 4:57 PM

It's a local model so it's essentially open weight such that you could feasibly export it somehow since it's already on the laptop somewhere. Apfel is a wrapper app like ChatGPT but using Apple Foundation Models, I assume something similar will happen with this transcription model.

https://apfel.franzai.com/

edude03yesterday at 5:00 PM

It's not open weight, but the point is to be an on device (and thus local, privacy preserving) option. The article mentions that as the caveat

> What this means if you just want good transcription

> If you are on a current iPhone or Mac, the best on-device transcription engine for English is already in the operating system, and the private option is no longer the compromise option

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wahnfriedenyesterday at 5:06 PM

It is local

The appeal is that users only have to download it once across all apps that use it. Instead of convincing a user to give a couple gigs for just your one app