Apple Intelligence may launch in China as soon as May
Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system for Mac, iPad, and iPhone
Apple is working to launch its Apple Intelligence features in China by mid-2025, a project that involves software modifications and strong collaboration with local partners in the CCP-controlled nation, Mark Gurman reports for Bloomberg News. The company has teams in both America and China adapting its Apple Intelligence platform, targeting a potential release as early as May, based on information from sources familiar with the effort.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
The company has worked with Alibaba to create an on-device system that can analyze and modify Apple’s AI models for iPhone, iPad and Mac users in China. It will censor and filter AI output to comply with requirements from the Chinese government. Baidu, meanwhile, will be a secondary partner handling other features, the people said.
The US version of Apple Intelligence has several elements that can’t be automatically transferred to the Asian nation.
The platform has three main types of AI in the US: Apple features that run on the devices themselves, Apple features that are powered by the company’s internet servers, and OpenAI chatbot capabilities that run on that company’s infrastructure.
In China, Apple will use its own on-device AI models like it does in the US, but Alibaba software will serve as a layer on top that can censor material that the government objects to — without the user knowing.
The Chinese government will be able to direct Alibaba to ask Apple to make changes to AI models when it has issues with the information being delivered to customers. In cases where a customer’s device is still running an outdated model, Apple will temporarily disable AI features until the data is updated to remove prohibited content.
Apple devices outside of China already have on-device models that can be updated behind the scenes, but the process in China will occur regularly and happen swiftly.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last November, “Apple Intelligence in China will be highly censored and rather limited; it will only spit back the approved narratives of the Chinese Communist Party.”
The Chinese people are, unfortunately, acclimated to censorship and a lack of freedom, so iPhone sales will increase with the advent of Apple Intelligence in China, regardless of the limitations placed upon it by the Chinese Communist Party. – MacDailyNews, February 11, 2025
Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. — Potter Stewart
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