A recent report reveals that Apple has established a partnership with Alibaba to launch Apple Intelligence for iPhone users in China. Given the country’s stringent regulations on artificial intelligence, Apple has opted to collaborate with local firms to handle AI processing. Bloomberg has now provided insights into the operational aspects of Apple Intelligence in China.
Apple Intelligence in China
Local laws in China mandate that data must be processed within the country instead of being dispatched to overseas servers.
Before today’s announcement, it was speculated that Apple was in discussions with Alibaba and Baidu to enhance Apple Intelligence features in China. According to Mark Gurman, both companies have been enlisted by Apple to facilitate various components of Apple Intelligence for users in China.
The alliance with Alibaba is designed to create a system that will perform analysis and modifications to Apple’s AI models tailored for iOS and macOS. This framework will ensure that AI outputs are filtered and censored to align with the Chinese government’s standards. Reports indicate that the Chinese authorities can request alterations to AI models through Alibaba whenever adjustments to user information are needed.
Apple devices will be equipped to identify if they are utilizing outdated AI models and will automatically disable Apple Intelligence until updated models are uploaded. This will occur seamlessly in the background, without drawing user attention.
In contrast, Baidu will support features such as Visual Intelligence, which currently depends on Google and OpenAI. This change may also replace the integration of ChatGPT in Siri.
More complex requests pertaining to Apple Intelligence may be managed online through what Apple refers to as a Private Cloud Compute. It’s expected that in China, these requests will be processed on servers managed by the state-operated affiliate GCBD, which already oversees iCloud services for Chinese customers.
Apple has announced plans to extend Apple Intelligence support to additional languages for the first time with iOS 18.4. Among these new languages will be Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Vietnamese. However, it is reported that Apple may postpone enabling Apple Intelligence for users in China until May.
It is important to highlight that this censorship framework is applicable solely to devices sold within China. iPhones, iPads, and Macs purchased outside of China will not utilize the local AI system, even if they are brought into the country.
The initial beta version of iOS 18.4 is anticipated to be released to developers next week.
