Nativ: A New macOS App for Running Local AI Models via MLX
Developer Prince Canuma has introduced Nativ, a new macOS desktop application that wraps Apple's MLX framework to run local vision and language AI models. The app features a chat interface and a localhost API server, similar to LM Studio. It simplifies the process for macOS developers to run and test local AI models by leveraging the Apple Silicon-optimized MLX framework. This provides a user-friendly alternative to command-line tools and integrates seamlessly with existing local workflows. Nativ automatically detects and loads MLX models already present in the user's Hugging Face cache directory. It is built by the creator of the MLX-VLM library, which is designed for inference and fine-tuning of Vision Language Models on Mac.
## BACKGROUND
MLX is an array framework developed by Apple machine learning research specifically for efficient machine learning on Apple silicon. MLX-VLM is a related Python package that enables the running and fine-tuning of Vision Language Models (VLMs) on Mac using this framework.