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I extracted the safety filters from Apple Intelligence models

(github.com)
534 points BlueFalconHD | 13 comments | 06 Jul 25 19:50 UTC | HN request time: 0.493s | source | bottom

I managed to reverse engineer the encryption (refered to as “Obfuscation” in the framework) responsible for managing the safety filters of Apple Intelligence models. I have extracted them into a repository. I encourage you to take a look around.
1. mike_hearn ◴[06 Jul 25 20:38 UTC] No.44483836[source]▶
Are you sure it's fully deobfuscated? What's up with reject phrases like "Granular mango serpent"?
replies(9): >>44483870 #>>44483918 #>>44483982 #>>44484014 #>>44484047 #>>44484460 #>>44484489 #>>44486400 #>>44488390 #
2. tablets ◴[06 Jul 25 20:42 UTC] No.44483870[source]▶
Maybe something to do with this? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mango_cult
3. airstrike ◴[06 Jul 25 20:48 UTC] No.44483918[source]▶
the one at the bottom of the README spells out xcode

wyvern illustrous laments darkness

replies(1): >>44484213 #
4. andy99 ◴[06 Jul 25 20:56 UTC] No.44483982[source]▶
I clicked around a bit and this seems to be the most common phrase. Maybe it's a test phrase?
replies(1): >>44484024 #
5. electroly ◴[06 Jul 25 21:00 UTC] No.44484014[source]▶
"GMS" = Generative Model Safety. The example from the readme is "XCODE". These seem to be acronyms spelled out in words.
replies(1): >>44484472 #
6. the-rc ◴[06 Jul 25 21:01 UTC] No.44484024[source]▶
Maybe it's used to catch clones of the models?
7. pbhjpbhj ◴[06 Jul 25 21:05 UTC] No.44484047[source]▶
Speculation: Maybe they know that the real phrase is close enough in the vector space to be treated as synonymous with "granular mango serpent". The phrase then is like a nickname that only the models authors know the expected interference of?

Thus a pre-prompt can avoid mentioning the actual forbidden words, like using a patois/cant.

8. cwmoore ◴[06 Jul 25 21:28 UTC] No.44484213[source]▶
read every good expletive “xxx”
9. BlueFalconHD ◴[06 Jul 25 21:56 UTC] No.44484460[source]▶
These are the contents read by the Obfuscation functions exactly. There seems to be a lot of testing stuff still though, remember these models are relatively recent. There is a true safety model being applied after these checks as well, this is just to catch things before needing to load the safety model.
10. BlueFalconHD ◴[06 Jul 25 21:59 UTC] No.44484472[source]▶
This is definitely the right answer. It’s just testing stuff.
11. KTibow ◴[06 Jul 25 22:01 UTC] No.44484489[source]▶
Maybe it's used to verify that the filter is loaded.
12. RainyDayTmrw ◴[07 Jul 25 03:11 UTC] No.44486400[source]▶
I commented in another thread[1] that it's most likely a unique, artificial QA input, to avoid QA having to repeatedly use offensive phrases or whatever.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44486374

13. consonaut ◴[07 Jul 25 09:29 UTC] No.44488390[source]▶
If you try to use the phrase with Apple Intelligence (e.g. in Notes asking for a rewrite) it will just say "Writing tools unavailable".

Maybe it's an easy test to ensure the filters are loaded with a phrase unlikely to be used accidentaly?