Hugging Face today has released SmolLM2, a new family of compact language models that achieve impressive performance while requiring far fewer computational resources than their larger counterparts.

The new models, released under the Apache 2.0 license, come in three sizes — 135M, 360M and 1.7B parameters — making them suitable for deployment on smartphones and other edge devices where processing power and memory are limited. Most notably, the 1.7B parameter version outperforms Meta’s Llama 1B model on several key benchmarks.

Small models pack a powerful punch in AI performance tests

“SmolLM2 demonstrates significant advances over its predecessor, particularly in instruction following, knowledge, reasoning and mathematics,” according to Hugging Face’s model documentation. The largest variant was trained on 11 trillion tokens using a diverse dataset combination including FineWeb-Edu and specialized mathematics and coding datasets.

This development comes at a crucial time when the AI industry is grappling with the computational demands of running large language models (LLMs). While companies like OpenAI and Anthropic push the boundaries with increasingly massive models, there’s growing recognition of the need for efficient, lightweight AI that can run locally on devices.

The push for bigger AI models has left many potential users behind. Running these models requires expensive cloud computing services, which come with their own problems: slow response times, data privacy risks and high costs that small companies and independent developers simply can’t afford. SmolLM2 offers a different approach by bringing powerful AI capabilities directly to personal devices, pointing toward a future where advanced AI tools are within reach of more users and companies, not just tech giants with massive data centers.

Edge computing gets a boost as AI moves to mobile devices

SmolLM2’s performance is particularly noteworthy given its size. On the MT-Bench evaluation, which measures chat capabilities, the 1.7B model achieves a score of 6.13, competitive with much larger models. It also shows strong performance on mathematical reasoning tasks, scoring 48.2 on the GSM8K benchmark. These results challenge the conventional wisdom that bigger models are always better, suggesting that careful architecture design and training data curation may be more important than raw parameter count.

The models support a range of applications including text rewriting, summarization and function calling. Their compact size enables deployment in scenarios where privacy, latency or connectivity constraints make cloud-based AI solutions impractical. This could prove particularly valuable in healthcare, financial services and other industries where data privacy is non-negotiable.

Industry experts see this as part of a broader trend toward more efficient AI models. The ability to run sophisticated language models locally on devices could enable new applications in areas like mobile app development, IoT devices, and enterprise solutions where data privacy is paramount.

The race for efficient AI: Smaller models challenge industry giants

However, these smaller models still have limitations. According to Hugging Face’s documentation, they “primarily understand and generate content in English” and may not always produce factually accurate or logically consistent output.

The release of SmolLM2 suggests that the future of AI may not solely belong to increasingly large models, but rather to more efficient architectures that can deliver strong performance with fewer resources. This could have significant implications for democratizing AI access and reducing the environmental impact of AI deployment.

The models are available immediately through Hugging Face’s model hub, with both base and instruction-tuned versions offered for each size variant.

Strands is the NYT’s latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games.

Due to its unique model that includes only original content, Apple TV+ tends to have a very slim new release slate. However, just about every Apple TV+ release features A-list talent, and it has set a high bar for quality. Just look at Best Picture winner CODA and Emmy-winning drama Severance (returning in January).

This month is no exception, as there are only four new additions to the library in November. We’ve highlighted the two most anticipated, but don’t overlook Season 2 of the critically acclaimed comedy Bad Sisters or the Malala Yousafzai and Jennifer Lawrence documentary Bread & Roses.

There are only a few new arrivals each month to Apple TV+, but they’re usually all worth at least a glance. This month is no exception. Read on for everything coming to Apple TV+ in October 2024.

Looking for more content? Check out our guides on the best new shows to stream, the best shows on Apple TV+, the best shows on Netflix, and the best shows on Hulu.

Need more suggestions?

Our top picks for November

Everything new on Apple TV+ in November

Last month’s top picks

Google may upgrade the “Now Playing” feature by adding the much-needed album art to the history page. Now Playing has been able to identify songs with a high degree of accuracy, but the list only included the name of the song and the artist.

Now Playing is constantly operating in the background, but only for music

Introduced way back in 2017 along with the Pixel 2, the Now Playing feature has remained exclusive to the Google Pixel phones. It essentially identifies songs that are playing nearby and works well even on the latest Pixel 9 devices.

Apps like Shazam have been recognizing music and songs for quite some time. However, Now Playing has some tricks for the Pixel phones. Now Playing works entirely in the background. Pixel users don’t even need to pull out their phones.

While working in the background, Now Playing relies on the low-power efficiency cores to continuously analyze audio through the microphone. If it picks up audio that seems like music or a song, Now Playing requests the performance cores to record a few seconds of the audio.

Now Playing then matches the recorded audio on a database containing tens of thousands of fingerprints of the most popular songs in a particular region. After processing and matching, Now Playing displays the name and artist of the song on the lock screen as well as in a notification.

Needless to say, Now Playing is fairly accurate. However, the list of songs it recognizes contains only the name of the song, the artist, and a timestamp.

Google’s Now Playing feature for Pixel devices may get album art

The songs that Now Playing recognized are visible under Settings > Sound & vibration > Now Playing. The page lists the history of identified songs in reverse chronological order.

Although there’s an icon next to each song, Google has refused to append any album art to the songs Now Playing recognizes. According to Android Authority, this might change in the future.

The hidden system app that downloads the Now Playing database may soon also grab album art. The code change is titled “#AlbumArt Add Now Playing album art downloads to the network usage log”.

Google has yet to assign a dedicated online repository from where Now Playing will download album art for the songs it recognizes. However, Ambient Music Mod, an open-source port of Now Playing by developer Kieron Quinn, already has the feature. The reverse-engineered version essentially replaces the generic music note icon with album art.

Disney is adding another layer to its AI and extended reality strategies. As first reported by Reuters, the company recently formed a dedicated emerging technologies unit. Dubbed the Office of Technology Enablement, the group will coordinate the company’s exploration, adoption and use of artificial intelligence, AR and VR tech.

It has tapped Jamie Voris, previously the CTO of its Studios Technology division, to oversee the effort. Before joining Disney in 2010, Voris was the chief technology officer at the National Football League. More recently, he led the development of the company’s Apple Vision Pro app. Voris will report to Alan Bergman, the co-chairman of Disney Entertainment. Reuters reports the company eventually plans to grow the group to about 100 employees.

“The pace and scope of advances in AI and XR are profound and will continue to impact consumer experiences, creative endeavors, and our business for years to come — making it critical that Disney explore the exciting opportunities and navigate the potential risks,” Bergman wrote in an email Disney shared with Engadget. “The creation of this new group underscores our dedication to doing that and to being a positive force in shaping responsible use and best practices.”

A Disney spokesperson told Engadget the Office of Technology Enablement won’t take over any existing AI and XR projects at the company. Instead, it will support Disney’s other teams, many of which are already working on products that involve those technologies, to ensure their work fits into the company’s broader strategic goals.

“It is about bringing added focus, alignment, and velocity to those efforts, and about reinforcing our commitment being a positive force in shaping responsible use and best practices,” the spokesperson said.

It’s safe to say Disney has probably navigated the last two decades of technological change better than most of Hollywood. For instance, the company’s use of the Unreal Engine in conjunction with a digital set known as The Volume has streamlined the production of VFX-heavy shows like The Mandalorian. With extended reality and AI in particular promising tidal changes to how humans work and play, it makes sense to add some additional oversight to how those technologies are used at the company.

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