Apple Intelligence Finally Cleared to Launch in China

[MacRumors]

Apple Intelligence has been approved by Chinese regulators, opening the door for the AI system to reach iPhones in the country for the first time.

Reuters reports that China's Cyberspace Administration registered Apple's on-device generative AI service this week, putting it on a list of newly cleared providers that also includes homegrown systems from Chinese phone makers.

An unnamed source told the outlet that Apple's AI features in the country will draw on models from both Baidu and Alibaba. In February 2025, Alibaba was reported to be building the primary system and Baidu contributing on a smaller scale.

Alibaba confirmed its part of the arrangement directly, telling Reuters that its Qwen model will power Apple Intelligence functions across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS for Chinese users, including both text and image generation. No launch date has been given, though approval typically precedes a rollout by only a few months, putting a China debut roughly in line with Apple's usual fall software release cycle.

Apple actually briefly switched the features on early for some Chinese users back in March, months ahead of getting the green light, and a feedback form aimed at Chinese users appeared on Apple's site late last year as the company inched closer to approval.

iPhone shipments in China climbed 24.4 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, making Apple the fastest-growing smartphone brand in a market that otherwise kept shrinking. A working version of Apple Intelligence could help sustain that momentum, though Apple is still catching up to domestic rivals that built AI features into their phones well before it did.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple Intelligence Finally Cleared to Launch in China

 

[sakurarain]

good news for the in-China-sold iPhone users.

 

[leonremi]

I wonder if it will change anything for Europe.

 

[iMac The Knife]

Have fun with Apple "Intelligence"! 🤣

 

[one more]

I wonder if it will change anything for Europe.

We already have Apple Intelligence in Europe, so now China will be catching up.

What is still missing in both China and the EU is Siri AI, which is still on hold. I am sure Apple are very keen to bring it over to as many countries as possible asap, as the more people are using it worldwide, the better it is for the model’s development. I have been testing Siri AI in Switzerland and it still needs a lot of fine-tuning to compete with the cloud-based models. It “thinks” for too long and struggles to find things from my mailbox in Apple Mail. Also, CarPlay Siri of iOS 26 works way better than Siri AI of iOS 27, which still needs a lot of work.

Basically, the EU people are not missing much, yet.

 

[IIGS User]

Help me understand.

Apple needs the permission of the Chines government to provide this service to the people of China?

Just asking for the sake of clarification.

 

[MilaM]

Which proves that Apple has already engineered Siri AI in such a way that models are interchangeable. Makes you wonder what technicalities are preventing Apple to introduce it in the EU in a timely manner.

Edit: This article seems to be about the old "Apple Intelligence", not Siri AI.

 

[burgman]

Help me understand.

Apple needs the permission of the Chines government to provide this service to the people of China?

Just asking for the sake of clarification.

Are you visiting this planet?

 

[MNWildFan]

Alright, your move now, EU

 

[sw1tcher]

Help me understand.

Apple needs the permission of the Chines government to provide this service to the people of China?

Just asking for the sake of clarification.

It's like how drug companies need the government's (FDA's) approval to provide their products to people in the U.S.

China isn't the only one. OpenAI needed the US government's approval to give the public access to their newest GPT-5.6 model

 

[IIGS User]

Are you visiting this planet?

/Sarcasm off

Sometimes a question is a statement.

 

[Le0M]

Help me understand.

Apple needs the permission of the Chines government to provide this service to the people of China?

Just asking for the sake of clarification.

Of course. Chinese government has a strick policy on anything foreigner, this includes software.
Because of censorship, Apple must abide to local rules and prevent its AI to say specific things that are not allowed by the Chinese government.
It's nothing new under the sun. It's the same with movies, books and any other media.

Ps: here Apple Intelligence is blocked geographically, so no matter where you bought your device: whoever enters or already is in China won't be able to use Apple Intelligence.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Reuters reports that China's Cyberspace Administration registered Apple's on-device generative AI service this week, putting it on a list of newly cleared providers that also includes homegrown systems from Chinese phone makers.

An unnamed source told the outlet that Apple's AI features in the country will draw on models from both Baidu and Alibaba. In February 2025, Alibaba was reported to be building the primary system and Baidu contributing on a smaller scale.

Alibaba confirmed its part of the arrangement directly, telling Reuters that its Qwen model will power Apple Intelligence functions across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS for Chinese users, including both text and image generation

It really is pretty amazing to witness the amount of “doing whatever they ask “ Apple can and will do.

It’s food for thought in the debates regarding other regions of the world.

 

[baconcat_8964]

Based on the registration information, Apple submitted for approval back in June 2025. The administration approved on last Wednesday, announced it today, and I bet this is prepared for the WAIC conference that about to open in July 17.

Thus China could say "we are open to foreign AI companies".

 

[Haiku_Oezu]

This is just Apple Intelligence (the current one) and not Siri AI, right? (the improved one in iOS 27)

 

[SKeijmel]

Hows it going for europe though??

 

[Mescagnus]

I wonder if it will change anything for Europe.

Probably not. China can be reasoned with, EU just wants money with fines.

 

[jb310]

its Qwen model will power Apple Intelligence functions across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS for Chinese users, including both text and image generation.

It sounds like Apple's own Foundation Models are being replaced with Qwen? I wonder if that'll make it better or worse for users there... 🤔

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Probably not. China can be reasoned with, EU just wants money with fines.

Right, they allowed Vestager to sell them on legislation that makes success illegal. They see their future as NOT creating the wildly successful world class tech of tomorrow, but solidifying the control the current market leaders have, then fining those leaders.