By Che Pan and Liz Lee
BEIJING, July 15 (Reuters) – China’s cyberspace regulator said on Wednesday that Apple’s on-device generative AI service, Apple Intelligence, has been registered for use on iPhones in China, paving the way for the long-anticipated rollout of the service in the country.
China requires companies to register large language models and generative AI services with regulators before making them available to the public.
Apple Intelligence will incorporate capabilities from AI models developed by Baidu and Alibaba, a source familiar with the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Apple did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
The development could help bolster Apple’s position in China, where consumers have been waiting for the rollout of Apple Intelligence.
Alibaba said in a statement to Reuters that its Qwen model will be integrated into Apple Intelligence across Apple’s iPhone (iOS), iPad (iPadOS), Mac (macOS) and Vision Pro (visionOS) operating systems in China.
Apple is also working with Baidu to develop Apple Intelligence features for Chinese iPhone users, a Baidu spokesperson said.
The regulator’s statement did not give a launch date for Apple Intelligence in China.
Apple reported a 24.4% year-on-year increase in its China shipments in the second quarter.
Separately, ZTE’s Nubia-Doubao smartphone model was also registered with the cyberspace regulator.
Nubia is a smartphone brand owned by telecoms equipment maker ZTE, which works with ByteDance to produce the AI-focused Doubao smartphone.
(Reporting by Ethan Wang, Che Pan and Liz Lee. Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Mark Potter)
