Apple has started a partnership with Alibaba to use the Chinese company's artificial intelligence models for Apple Intelligence. The first functions developed under the new cooperation have already been submitted to Chinese regulators for approval, The Information writes.
In order for manufacturers to implement artificial intelligence models on their devices in China, they need to get approval from the Chinese government. That is why the company has been considering various options for cooperation for some time, including with Baidu.
Other companies considered for partnership included Tencent and ByteDance. Interestingly, Apple completely bypassed DeepSeek, a new Chinese AI startup that recently gained attention due to rumors of very cheap model training that were later denied.
In addition to developing its own Apple Intelligence features, the company also uses OpenAI's ChatGPT, but since none of the American models have been approved in China, Apple chooses local partners such as Alibaba.
It remains unclear when the new AI features will be approved for Chinese iPhone users. By the way, Apple plans to add new languages for Apple Intelligence in the near future, including Chinese.