After Two Years of Waiting, Apple's AI for China Finally Passes Regulatory Filing, Integrates with Qwen
China's cyberspace authority has approved seven mobile on-device generative AI services for public offering, including Apple Intelligence, Huawei Celia AI, OPPO AndesGPT, vivo BlueOS AI, Xiaomi Hyper AI, Samsung Galaxy AI, and Nubia's Doubao model. This marks the largest single batch of such approvals in China. Apple's AI service, arriving two years after its global announcement at WWDC 2024, will integrate Alibaba's Qwen model for Chinese users on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS, offering text/image understanding and content generation without switching apps.
An accidental early release of Apple Intelligence in China in March revealed its strengths in on-device speed and privacy, but also limitations in handling complex tasks compared to cloud-based models. The official approval resolves the compliance hurdle. Apple's delay in launching AI features in China has been cited as a factor affecting its recent competitive pressure in the market, where local rivals have already integrated advanced AI. While the global version of Apple's new Siri AI uses Google's Gemini, the China version will be powered by Alibaba Qwen. The final step for users is awaiting the actual integration of these features in future iOS updates.
marsbit07/15 12:22