Apple Said to Be Working With Anthropic on AI-Powered Version of Xcode

Apple is reportedly working with Anthropic to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) supported version of Xcode. The Cupertino-based tech giant's integrated development environment (IDE) for developing software across all its platforms was upgraded with an AI coding companion dubbed Swift Assist last year. The company is now planning to integrate AI capabilities much more comprehensively, according to a Bloomberg report. The upgraded version of Xcode will be able to write, edit, and test code using AI, without requiring intervention from developers.

Apple Is Reportedly Planning an AI Upgrade for Xcode

Bloomberg reports that Apple is planning to release the AI-powered version of Xcode internally. Apple is reportedly yet to make a decision on whether to release the platform publicly. Citing unnamed people with knowledge of the matter, the report says that the new programming platform will integrate Anthropic's Claude Sonnet model (the model version was not specified).

The new Xcode will be focused on “vibe coding”. The phrase was coined and popularised by Andrej Karpathy, Co-founder of OpenAI and former AI director at Tesla, in February. Vibe coding is essentially a new programming paradigm where developers describe what they want to build or code, and an AI model with a chat interface writes, edits, tests, and even deploys the code. With vibe coding, the role of a coder is essentially to focus on the vision for the final product.

According to the publication, Apple was apprehensive about using AI to make consumer-focused software. However, the company is reportedly considering the transition to improve internal workflow and speed up software development cycles.

Apple's new programming platform reportedly comes with a chat interface where developers can type prompts about the code they want to write or any alterations they want to make. The platform is said to also feature a testing environment that can test user interfaces (UI), a process which the sources called “cumbersome when done manually.” The upgraded version of Xcode can reportedly also find and fix bugs in existing code.

The iPhone maker has teamed up with other firms over the past couple of years, in order to introduce new AI features on its products. It partnered with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT's capabilities to Apple Intelligence, and is reportedly working on a deal to add support for Gemini to its devices. In China, the company is partnering with Baidu to power its suite of AI features.