Glossary
Neural Engine
The Apple Neural Engine (ANE) is a block of hardware inside Apple's chips that runs machine learning models efficiently. Speech models can run on it, and Apple uses it for on-device machine learning inference.
Updated October 16, 20264 cited facts, each traced to its source
Also called Apple Neural Engine, ANE.
The Neural Engine is a part of Apple's chips built for machine learning. Apple calls the Apple Neural Engine (ANE) the energy-efficient and high-throughput engine for ML inference on Apple silicon 1. Inference is the step where a trained model runs on new input. In dictation, that is the step where a recognizer turns the sound of your voice into words.
The Neural Engine has grown many times over
Apple says the fifth generation of its 16-core Neural Engine, reached by 2021, is capable of 15.8 teraflops, which it puts at 26 times the processing power of the original 2. A teraflop is a trillion floating-point operations per second. That number is a peak, the most the hardware can reach. It is not a measure of how quickly any particular dictation app will respond.
Speech models can run faster on the Neural Engine
The whisper.cpp project runs OpenAI's open-source Whisper speech model on Apple hardware. It says that running the Whisper encoder on the Neural Engine through Core ML, Apple's machine learning framework, can be more than three times faster than CPU-only execution on Apple silicon 3. The figure comes from one open-source project and one model, so it shows what the hardware can do, not how fast Apple's own Dictation or any other app runs.
Running on the device keeps inference data off servers
Apple's machine learning team says that on-device machine learning benefits privacy, because the data for inference workloads stays on the device rather than on a server 4. That is the privacy argument for on-device inference. Whether your own dictation takes the on-device path depends on the language and the Mac, and the guide on how Apple Dictation works explains how to tell.
Related terms
- Apple silicon: the chips that contain the Neural Engine.
- Apple Intelligence: Apple's AI features, which use on-device models.
- Speech framework (Apple): the developer toolkit that gives apps access to Apple's speech models.
Guides that cover it
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Related terms
- Mac Dictation: How to Dictate and Control a Mac by VoiceThe topic this term belongs to
- Accessibility permission (macOS)Accessibility permission is a macOS setting that lets a specific app read and control other apps through the system's accessibility features. macOS keeps it under Privacy & Security, and an app gets no access until you allow it there.
- Apple DictationApple Dictation is the free, built-in feature that types what you say into any text field on a Mac. Apple also calls it Mac Dictation, macOS Dictation or keyboard dictation.
- Apple IntelligenceApple Intelligence is the name Apple gives to its AI features across its devices. Its on-device models can improve Dictation on newer Macs, and Apple says apps can use the same models.
- Apple siliconApple silicon is the family of chips Apple designs for its own computers, starting with certain Macs in late 2020. Each chip puts several computer components on one piece of silicon, which Apple calls a system on a chip.
- Enhanced DictationEnhanced Dictation was a Mac option, available from OS X Mavericks, that lets you dictate without an internet connection after a download. Apple's help for macOS Mojave describes it, but Apple's later Dictation pages do not mention it.
- Globe key (Fn key)The Globe key, also called the Fn key or function key, is a modifier on Apple keyboards. In Keyboard settings you choose what a press does, such as switching input source, starting Dictation or doing nothing.
- Improve Siri & DictationImprove Siri & Dictation is the Mac setting that controls whether Apple may store and review audio from your Siri and Dictation requests. When you first turn on Dictation, the same choice is labeled Share Audio Recordings.
- Microphone key (dictation key)The Microphone key is a key on some Mac keyboards that starts Apple Dictation when you press and release it. Pressing and holding it activates Siri instead, if Siri is turned on.
- SiriSiri is Apple's built-in voice assistant. You speak a request and it answers or carries out an action, while Dictation types what you say into a text field instead.
- Speech framework (Apple)The Speech framework is Apple's developer toolkit for turning audio into text inside an app. It includes the older SFSpeechRecognizer class and the newer SpeechAnalyzer, which Apple says transcribes entirely on the device once its models are downloaded.
- Voice Control (Apple)Voice Control is Apple's feature for controlling a Mac with spoken commands, including opening apps, clicking items and editing text. When it is on, it also handles dictation, so standard macOS Dictation is not available.
- VoiceOverVoiceOver is the screen reader built into macOS, which speaks what is on the screen so you can use the Mac without seeing it. It does the reverse of dictation: it reads text aloud rather than writing your speech.
Pages that use this term
- Mac Dictation: How to Dictate and Control a Mac by VoiceTopic
- How Apple Dictation Works: On-Device, Server and AIGuide
- On-Device vs Cloud Speech Recognition: The TradeoffsGuide
- Does on-device AI dictation drain your battery?Question
- Apple IntelligenceGlossary
- Apple siliconGlossary
- Neural processing unit (NPU)Glossary
- Speech framework (Apple)Glossary