[ipsum2]

Apple used to contribute to the PyTorch MPS backend, but decided to create their own framework (MLX) instead, fragmenting the ecosystem for very little gain. (MLX is basically PyTorch, but invented-at-apple)

Meta, the creator and main contributor to PyTorch, does not use Macs for their day-to-day ML work (they focus on GPUs and CPUs), so the MPS backend is sadly incomplete and has errors like the one you see here.

[sampton]

MLX and MPS are 2 completely different teams within Apple. It's more like MPS team doesn't have control or visibility into PyTorch roadmap and can only contribute so much from their side.

[almostgotcaught]

none of this is correct (except the part where FB doesn't use apple in prod).

EDIT: for the downvoters - i'll repeat, this is not a correct assessment of the relationship between Apple and PyTorch. but you can keep downvoting if you want <shrug>

[ipsum2]

Please be specific if you have anything to say. By the way, the co-creator and core maintainer of PyTorch has the same opinion as me.

https://x.com/soumithchintala/status/1978848796953161754

"MacStudio you ask?

Apple Engineering's *actual* time spent on PyTorch support has't given me confidence that PyTorch Mac experience would get anywhere close to NVIDIA's any time soon, if ever.

The Meta engineers continue to do a huge amount of heavy-lifting for improving the MPS backend, including feeling the responsibility for the Mac experience. Apple's priorities keep changing, the number of engineering hours they contribute keeps changing and their interest in actually and wholly owning the PyTorch MPS backend keeps varying.

If Apple wants MacStudio to become an actual AI devbox, and not just an AI inference machine, then prioritizing software support for PyTorch (>90% marketshare in AI) would probably be a good idea."

[hedgehog]

Apple has never cared about ML research on their hardware. I've never been able to pin down a specific reason why, best I can figure out is they don't see it bringing enough additional hardware sales to be a focus.

[almostgotcaught]

lol @ quoting soumith - the guy's sole job responsibility is tweeting.

[ipsum2]

If you have more knowledge than the core maintainer of pytorch, why are you unwilling to share, instead of snarking?

[almostgotcaught]

He's not a core maintainer and hasn't been for years - pytorch's contributors are completely public

https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/graphs/contributors

[ipsum2]

Got it, you're a bad troll. He's listed as the "Lead Core Maintainer" on PyTorch.

[Q6T46nT668w6i3m]

Everyone I know at Meta uses a Mac

[ipsum2]

No one at Meta runs local inference on a Mac, unless its for fun.