Implement Apple's Foundation Model (Summarisation)

[totalsoda]

Hi, please could you add support for Apple's Foundation Model for on-device AI summaries? How I image it implemented:

• On the list view, the description under each title would be a short summary of the article (not unlike the Mail app)

• When viewing an article, there's a 'Summarise' button at the top to summarise the entire article (not unlike Safari in reader mode)

Thanks

[pvegh]

This should be easy now. I wrote some code doing similar for a local test, could try to add it to NNW. @brentsimmons do you have any hard thoughts how you want this done? I'd start with an easy summarize feature. Later a setting for auto summary on top would make sense (opt out).

I've been thinking a lot about AI in RSS readers. Ultimately I want to identify a topic across multiple feeds/articles and pulling all those articles together, but showing a cleaned up, maybe summarized version of that context. Could also help fact checking or getting different views on things.

[brentsimmons]

By design, NetNewsWire stays very far away from algorithms and from AI. (And from money!)

It may be that my mind may change about using AI for summarizing (and perhaps other things) at some point in the future — but, if that happens, it would probably be a couple years from now, after things settle down and I have a better idea how it would affect NetNewsWire users.

[mrleblanc101]

That's disappointing to hear. A simple summary feature like Apple Mail would be nice. It doesn't need to be automatic, it could require a button press, so it would be 100% opt-in. With Apple Foundation models, it seems like this would be pretty easy to add.

[totalsoda]

The Foundation model is free and fully on device, as this is a built-in iOS/macOS feature.

I really think having an optional summary feature would improve the experience.

For example, if someone is half-interested in an article and wants a summary to get the gist, they need to tap the date to open it in Safari, turn on Reader Mode, and then summarise.

I hope you reconsider 🙏

[totalsoda]

I know this isn’t a priority, but I still think the idea fits well with what NetNewsWire aims to be: simple, fast, local, private, and fully Apple native. Since it uses Apple’s on-device model, there’s no external service, no data leaving the device, and it can stay completely optional for users who don’t want it.

If you get a chance to revisit this, I think a lot of users would be pleased 😁