Apple looks for Chinese partner for Apple Intelligence

Apple Intelligence — the personal intelligence system for iPhone, iPad, and Mac — combines the power of generative models with personal context to deliver intelligence that’s useful and relevant to the user.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other Western AI models aren’t available in China, and that is prompting Apple to look for a Chinese partner to help offer its Apple Intelligence services, The Wall Street Journal reports citing “people in the industry.”

Raffaele Huang and Jiyoung Sohn for The Wall Street Journal:

Apple has held talks with several Chinese companies that make AI models including search-engine company Baidu, e-commerce leader Alibaba Group and a Beijing-based startup called Baichuan AI, people familiar with the matter said.

In China, companies must seek Beijing’s approval before introducing AI chatbots built on large language models trained with huge databases of text, images and video vacuumed up from the internet and other sources. Regulators vet the models to ensure they don’t influence public opinion in a way the government doesn’t approve.

As of March, Beijing’s internet watchdog, the Cyberspace Administration of China, had approved 117 generative AI products, none of which is foreign-developed.

Early this year, Apple explored the possibility of obtaining approval for a foreign large language model to be used in its devices in China, but it found that Chinese regulators were unlikely to approve it, people familiar with the matter said. That realization prompted Apple to step up talks with potential local partners, they said.

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MacDailyNews Take: We assume Baidu, with its Ernie chatbot, would be the most logical choice.

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