Apple Intelligence has been approved by Chinese regulators, opening the door for the AI system to reach iPhones in the country for the first time.
Reuters reports that the China Cyberspace Administration registered Apple’s on-device generative AI service this week, placing it on a list of newly authorized vendors that also includes systems developed internally by Chinese phone makers.
An anonymous source told the outlet that Apple’s AI capabilities in the country will rely on models from Baidu and Alibaba. By February 2025, Alibaba would be building the main system and Baidu would contribute on a smaller scale.
Alibaba directly confirmed its side of the deal, saying Reuters that its Qwen model will power Apple Intelligence functions on iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS for Chinese users, including text and image generation. No launch date was given, although approval typically precedes a rollout by just a few months, putting the China debut roughly in line with Apple’s usual fall software release cycle.
Apple actually briefly enabled the features for some Chinese users in March, months before getting the green light, and a feedback form for Chinese users appeared on Apple’s site late last year as the company moved closer to approval.
iPhone shipments in China rose 24.4% year-over-year in the second quarter, making Apple the fastest-growing smartphone brand in a market that otherwise continued to shrink. A working version of Apple Intelligence could help maintain that momentum, although Apple is still playing catch-up to domestic rivals who built AI features into their phones long before it did.
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