Key Takeaways
- Apple is partnering with AI company Anthropic to enhance its Xcode software development tool.
- The collaboration involves integrating Anthropic’s “Claude” AI model, known for its coding abilities, into Xcode.
- This updated Xcode aims to help programmers write, edit, test code, and find bugs more efficiently.
- The AI-powered features are currently being tested internally by Apple employees.
- It’s unclear if or when these tools might become available to external developers.
- This move aligns with Apple’s broader strategy of incorporating AI through various partnerships, including OpenAI and Google.
Apple is exploring new ways to speed up software development by working with AI firm Anthropic, according to Bloomberg.
Anthropic is the company behind the “Claude” AI, a competitor to ChatGPT that has gained recognition for its strong performance on programming tasks.
The partnership focuses on integrating a version of Claude, called Sonnet, into Apple’s Xcode development platform. This enhanced Xcode is designed to assist programmers with writing, editing, and even testing their code.
Currently, this AI-powered Xcode is being rolled out internally for Apple’s own engineers to use and evaluate. Many tech companies are already using AI coding assistants, and Apple appears keen to leverage these advancements too.
Reports suggest the internal tool includes a chat feature where engineers can ask for code suggestions or help, and it can also assist in testing app interfaces and identifying bugs.
While Apple was initially cautious about using AI for customer-facing software development, recent progress in AI capabilities seems to have shifted their perspective.
There’s no official word yet on whether third-party app developers will get access to these new Xcode features. A successful internal trial could potentially lead to a public release down the line.
This isn’t Apple’s first venture into AI coding tools. A previously announced project called Swift Assist, intended as an AI companion for Xcode, hasn’t yet launched, reportedly due to some performance issues found during testing.
Working with Anthropic could potentially bolster Swift Assist or lead to entirely new tools for developers.
This collaboration is part of Apple’s wider push into artificial intelligence, which includes integrating OpenAI’s ChatGPT into iOS 18, exploring options with Google’s Gemini, and pursuing AI partnerships in China with companies like Baidu and Alibaba.
