Apple's on-device AI API now has a cloud backdoor: Claude as a drop-in 'model' (platform.claude.com)
You write your app once against Apple's Foundation Models protocol, then choose per session: the small local model, or Claude in the cloud. Requests go straight from the app to Anthropic; Apple isn't in the path.
The thread caught the sleight of hand fast. One reader who benchmarks open models noted Apple's framework caps local models near 3B parameters, so calling a frontier cloud model through an 'on-device' API is, charitably, hybrid.
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