Apple Trained Own AI Model for China Market With Help From Alibaba

[MacRumors]

Reuters reports that Apple has trained its own large language model for the China market, rather than relying on a third-party model to power its Apple Intelligence features in the country.

The LLM has been developed with the help of Alibaba, according to the report's sources. The development marks a break from Apple's previous strategy of relying on domestic models to bring generative AI to its devices sold in China.

Rollout of its AI features in China is expected in the coming months. The rollout is described by the report as a "dual-track strategy" for AI deployment in China, allowing Apple to navigate regulatory hurdles that have limited access for other U.S. tech companies.

The move makes Apple the first foreign company approved by the Chinese government to offer a proprietary AI model in the country.

Apple previously agreed with Chinese regulators to incorporate Alibaba's Qwen model into Apple Intelligence features, similar to Apple's existing ChatGPT extension available elsewhere. Apple briefly published a support guide in China explaining how Mac users can connect Alibaba's Qwen AI to Siri and Writing Tools, before pulling it entirely less than a day later.

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Article Link: Apple Trained Own AI Model for China Market With Help From Alibaba

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

Beautiful art and deep history and culture, just a bit oppressive, unfortunately. Amazing country to visit I’m sure. Living there would be another matter. I draw the line at not allowing YouTube—at least the West has the decency to feign the idea social media isn’t heavily corralled using AI and bots. One wonders at the rate the world is changing how long its leadership will be able to continue to censor its citizens from the internet.

 

[Macalicious2011]

I think apple will be requested to do this in many more countries.

 

[syklee26]

Every company needs to place the highest importance in Chinese market, but Apple does it too blatantly. Samsung spends lots of energy in Chinese market but it does not show up on news as much.

 

[yuvaldv1]

Beautiful art and deep history and culture, just a bit oppressive, unfortunately. Amazing country to visit I’m sure. Living there would be another matter. I draw the line at not allowing YouTube—at least the West has the decency to feign the idea social media isn’t heavily corralled using AI and bots. One wonders at the rate the world is changing how long its leadership will be able to continue to censor its citizens from the internet.

It is! I was there right before Covid in 2019 and it is still by far the most interesting country I’ve ever been to.

 

[Hammerd]

Every company needs to place the highest importance in Chinese market, but Apple does it too blatantly. Samsung spends lots of energy in Chinese market but it does not show up on news as much.

Yeah, Samsung’s news don’t show up as often on MacRumors…

 

[I_love_money]

Beautiful art and deep history and culture, just a bit oppressive, unfortunately. Amazing country to visit I’m sure. Living there would be another matter. I draw the line at not allowing YouTube—at least the West has the decency to feign the idea social media isn’t heavily corralled using AI and bots. One wonders at the rate the world is changing how long its leadership will be able to continue to censor its citizens from the internet.

Corruption also seems to be widespread in China. It’s maybe not as bad as Russia or third world holes like India, but still far from our beloved and superior western countries.

Edit: Since I can no longer reply to this thread, I’ll just write my answer here. Yes, the West is not perfect, especially the authoritarian UK and other leftist European governments. Corruption exists in the West too, but it is not an inherent part of the system. We’re still miles ahead when it comes to freedom of speech and democracy. That’s also a reason you’re on Macrumors and not on Huaweirumors or Yandexrumors.

 

[Andreas from Zurich]

„Hey Siri, what happened on the night of 3 June 1989 on Tiananmen Square?“

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

Corruption also seems to be widespread in China. It’s maybe not as bad as Russia or third world holes like India, but still far from our beloved and superior western countries.

Keep telling yourself that, mate. The US is deeply rotten politically, down to the core. Great people, but they are rarely told the truth about what's going on (as is the case in many countries probably). Continue to remain sceptical on the positive and negative stories about the archetypal Russian boogieman the media paints lazy cartoon depictions of. And Europe like everywhere else is deeply corrupt. Faux "citizen journalists" planted everywhere. Humanity's eyes will probably slowly open regardless.

 

[one more]

Corruption also seems to be widespread in China. It’s maybe not as bad as Russia or third world holes like India, but still far from our beloved and superior western countries.

Humans are corruptible everywhere, it is just hidden better in your “beloved and superior western countries.”

 

[Haiku_Oezu]

Just making sure Siri AI will never ever tell anyone what happened at Tiananmen Square when used in China I guess

 

[vegetassj4]

did the forty thieves help train it?

 

[HazeAndHahmahneez]

Wait, so china gets a SIRI AI free from google? Thats not fair. Lucky bastards….

 

[attila]

Corruption also seems to be widespread in China. It’s maybe not as bad as Russia or third world holes like India, but still far from our beloved and superior western countries.

Edit: Since I can no longer reply to this thread, I’ll just write my answer here. Yes, the West is not perfect, especially the authoritarian UK and other leftist European governments. Corruption exists in the West too, but it is not an inherent part of the system. We’re still miles ahead when it comes to freedom of speech and democracy. That’s also a reason you’re on Macrumors and not on Huaweirumors or Yandexrumors.

USA currently has the most blatantly corrupt government in the west. That it was so easy to get to this point is proof that it is, indeed, an inherent part of the system.

 

[turbineseaplane]

„Hey Siri, what happened on the night of 3 June 1989 on Tiananmen Square?“

"It was a day of peace and love and prosperity, showing that communism is the way and China is at the forefront of world leadership."

 

[Hajj.david]

Corruption also seems to be widespread in China. It’s maybe not as bad as Russia or third world holes like India, but still far from our beloved and superior western countries.

Edit: Since I can no longer reply to this thread, I’ll just write my answer here. Yes, the West is not perfect, especially the authoritarian UK and other leftist European governments. Corruption exists in the West too, but it is not an inherent part of the system. We’re still miles ahead when it comes to freedom of speech and democracy. That’s also a reason you’re on Macrumors and not on Huaweirumors or Yandexrumors.

We just have better names for it. Its not bribery, its lobbying! Its not insider trading, its wise congressional investments!

 

[applicious84]

...Corruption exists in the West too, but it is not an inherent part of the system. We’re still miles ahead when it comes to freedom of speech and democracy...

No country is "perfect." But the US arrests and tries to deport many when they speak up against ICE and Israel. They're starting and supporting wars and corrupt governments around the world. Iran is not perfect; the US and Israel started a war against them. The US and Israel are collaborating to perpetrate a livestreamed genocide. All those western ai companies have contributed to help them in this war.

Palantir and Peter Thiel are far more dangerous than any ai outside of the US and Israel.

Palantir manifesto described as ‘ramblings of a supervillain’ amid UK contract fears

Alarm caused by posts of Alex Karp, tech firm’s CEO, championing US military dominance and of AI weapons

www.theguardian.com

There's been nothing more dangerous in the world since Nazi Germany, and considering a livestreamed genocide today, the US and Israel are likely more dangerous. These are not just the crazy Trump/Vance/Netanyahu/Herzl/Hitler types; these are full societies going on deranged support of violent supremacy, where people can thoughtlessly say: but still far from our beloved and superior western countries.

And this is with the understanding of the horror that has created in the past.

 

[Hajj.david]

"It was a day of peace and love and prosperity, showing that communism is the way and China is at the forefront of world leadership."

Its a bit ironic, china is essentially the closest style of government to Adolf Hitler's "National Socialism" unlike an actual communist government, private businesses and ownership exists, but like National Socialism "All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state." so every company etc must put the interest of the state before anything else.

 

[Le0M]

Wait, so china gets a SIRI AI free from google? Thats not fair. Lucky bastards….

Do not fret. I'm sure Apple is developing its own AI.

 

[wonderings]

Wait, so china gets a SIRI AI free from google? Thats not fair. Lucky bastards….

so you trust Alibaba but not Google?

I would love it if we could just put in our own AI assistant in place of Siri, or have her utilizing it. So if I am using ChatGPT in the future and it much more part of my daily life it could be running Siri on the iPhone. Someone using Gemini or Alibaba or anything else could have theirs giving us the consumer a measure of control of what AI we use and would sync across all platforms.

It is! I was there right before Covid in 2019 and it is still by far the most interesting country I’ve ever been to.

Sounds like you were lucky to get out when you did. I had a friend who lived in China for the last 12 years and being there under the Covid lock downs was no joke. In comparison in the West we were effectively mask free and all greeting each other with sloppy wet kisses every day.

 

[mzeb]

I think I see what is happening here and it makes sense.

I work at a company developing a lot of AI and big data adjacent software and we consider model and data sovereignty a lot. There are a lot of concerns about what a model not trained on data of your choosing might produce.

Even objectively if you train a model with a bias towards government controlled vs free markets and use it in a free market country you will end up with some crazy answers for sure. And of course vice versa.

We aren’t in an age where the world can agree on ideals so we can’t have a universal model yet. Makes sense to me.

 

[JMalone]

Beautiful art and deep history and culture, just a bit oppressive, unfortunately. Amazing country to visit I’m sure. Living there would be another matter. I draw the line at not allowing YouTube—at least the West has the decency to feign the idea social media isn’t heavily corralled using AI and bots. One wonders at the rate the world is changing how long its leadership will be able to continue to censor its citizens from the internet.

When Europe is turned into Europooristan then China will try to attract all the westerners with money running away from the racism and fundamentalism of the hijabis who take power. But only the same kind of fools who ran away to Dubai will take the offer. I think South America kicking out all the narco communists will transform the region into the next big growth region that will attract intelligent people. But I will won’t go. I stand in my place and defend my liberties.

 

[dabirdwell]

Holy crap, this could be surprising. The latest Qwen models are amazingly strong, especially for their size. An Apple Qwen could be a monster of efficiency, especially if specifically optimized for Apple hardware/software functionality.

 

[WilliApple]

I think I have the Chinese Siri 💀

 

[extrachrispy]

USA currently has the most blatantly corrupt government in the west. That it was so easy to get to this point is proof that it is, indeed, an inherent part of the system.

There are indeed serious problems, but to date, the leader of the government has not yet been installed without at least the appearance of an election. Compare and contrast the new Prime Minister in the UK, for example.