MacPaw Partners with Liquid AI to Build On-Device AI Stack for Mac Developers

MacPaw taps Liquid AI to offer on-device inference to devs building for its app store

Ukraine-based app developer MacPaw has partnered up with Liquid AI to power its products with locally hosted AI models, and eventually make the tech stack available to developers. The company is also preparing its SetApp app store for AI apps with credit-based plans for users. MacPaw is currently working on its AI assistant Eney, which it unveiled last year, and now plans to build a locally hosted version, for which it has roped in Liquid AI to develop an on-device inference system called Elix as well as a local memory system. "Before training our models, we select an architecture that is different and tailored to the hardware. That allows us to really have the most efficient version of intelligence that runs directly on the device, with benefits like privacy and security," Liquid AI's co-founder and CEO Ramin Hasani told TechCrunch. MacPaw's CEO Oleksandr Kosovan said locally hosted AI models will also give users the ability to run assistants and agentic workflows offline. Notably, Apple already provides its own local models to developers. But Hasani maintains that Liquid AI's models focus on performance for different capabilities. "We are also building a customization stack around models. This means that with user input, the models can use the data and improve. We want our models to be adaptable and become more intelligent over time," Hasani said. MacPaw plans to focus more on AI apps for its subscription-based app store, SetApp, which has over 150,000 paying users. Once it locks in the local processing architecture with Liquid AI, MacPaw wants to make the tech available to developers so they can use on-device inference with their apps. Kosovan said the platform will also provide access to other cloud models from companies like Google, acting as a one-stop shop for developers. MacPaw is already experimenting with credit-based pricing for the app store, where users can perform a certain number of AI operations based on the credits they have and the complexity of the task.

MacPaw is building an on-device AI layer that will work across your Mac apps

MacPaw has announced a long-term strategic partnership with Liquid AI to co-develop an on-device AI technology stack built specifically for the Mac. The collaboration will start with Eney, MacPaw's AI assistant for macOS. MacPaw is teaming up with Liquid AI to bring more on-device AI to the Mac Liquid AI's Liquid Foundation Models (LFMs) will be adapted for Mac-based assistance and combined with MacPaw's own on-device technologies: Mnemos for memory and Elix for inference. Eney already shifted to a local model last year, keeping reasoning, contextual search, skill execution, and conversation history on the device whenever possible. The new partnership is intended to push that approach further. The two companies are jointly developing the underlying stack rather than MacPaw simply adding another third-party model. Once the technology has been tested and implemented in Eney, MacPaw says it plans to bring it to more of its products. It also wants to make the shared AI stack available to Mac developers through Setapp. That could let participating apps expose more of their capabilities and context to Eney. This would allow the assistant to understand what is inside an app. It could also provide more useful answers or take relevant actions. You can learn more about MacPaw's on-device AI technology and today's announcement here, and catch up on Liquid AI here.

Setapp moves into AI: local and ready to use in Mac apps

MacPaw partners with Liquid AI for private offline assistants MacPaw keeps taking steps to turn Setapp into a leader in AI. This time the company has partnered with Liquid AI to create different models that run directly on your computer to protect your privacy while simplifying the most common tasks in the apps we already know and enjoy. An AI that lives on your Mac and in Setapp apps According to MacPaw, Liquid AI will develop Elix, Eney's local inference and memory system, the company's assistant. With this foundation we'll be able to run assistants and workflows even without an internet connection, while your data stays on your computer and performance and speed improve. This approach echoes what makes Apple Intelligence stand out from other AI systems and follows a path we're seeing more and more consistently: an AI that doesn't rely on servers. Whether on proprietary infrastructure, on your personal computer, or integrated inside the app we're using, our own, local AI is gaining ground quickly. MacPaw plans to bring this infrastructure to Setapp developers. Through Setapp this AI will give developers access to local models and cloud services, including Google's, so that creating smart features within those apps becomes much easier. A very interesting evolution that, with ChatGPT's integration into Mac apps and with the combination of Apple Intelligence and ChatGPT, opens another way for AI to make its way into the apps we already use.