Apple is aiming to launch its Apple Intelligence AI features in China by 2025; however, the company is reportedly facing difficulties with its partner Baidu over privacy and technical matters.
According to journalists Qianer Liu and Wayne Ma from The Information:
“Apple and Baidu engineers are rushing to enhance Baidu’s large language models for optimal functionality with iPhone users. However, these models have been facing challenges in accurately interpreting queries and providing suitable responses for typical scenarios encountered by iPhone users,” revealed a source familiar with the project.
The report mentions “two individuals knowledgeable about the situation” who highlight the issues that must be addressed before Apple Intelligence can be integrated into Apple’s products in China.
Moreover, Baidu is reportedly seeking to retain data from iPhone users who utilize AI features for searches, which contradicts the design principles of Apple Intelligence and Private Cloud Compute. While Apple usually has to make adjustments for the Chinese market, compromising user privacy to enhance AI capabilities is hopefully something they will avoid.
Maintaining the competitiveness of the iPhone in Apple’s third-largest market is challenging, as noted by the report. Apple is already making unique arrangements for the Chinese market by collaborating with Baidu. The Information also states that Apple is obligated to compensate Baidu for utilizing its AI “Ernie 4.0” model and funding its adaptation for iPhones.
Baidu unveiled the model in October 2023. Here’s an excerpt from a press release by the company:
“ERNIE 4.0 has undergone a comprehensive upgrade, showcasing substantial enhancements in understanding, generation, reasoning, and memory,” proclaimed Robin Li, Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Baidu, during the event. “These four essential abilities lay the groundwork for AI-native applications and have unlocked limitless possibilities for new innovations.”
During his keynote, Li presented the new ERNIE Bot, driven by ERNIE 4.0, through extensive demonstrations of its four primary AI capabilities. The ERNIE Bot can “Understand” and respond to complex and even chaotic human requests while interpreting underlying meanings. It can also “Generate” various forms of content, including text, images, and videos, within minutes based on a simple text prompt and image input. Li showcased ERNIE Bot’s “Reasoning” capability by having it solve intricate geometry problems. Finally, the ERNIE Bot demonstrated its ability to “Memorize” and integrate new inputs by composing a short story and continually updating it with fresh information throughout the writing process.
Why did Apple choose to collaborate with Baidu? The Information points out that although foreign AI models are not explicitly banned in China, getting approval for their use is not prioritized by the Chinese authorities. The partnership between Apple and Baidu, which was previously suggested by the Wall Street Journal, has been confirmed and elaborated upon in The Information’s report.
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