iOS 18 Rumor: Apple and Baidu 'Yet to Reach' Generative AI Partnership

[MacRumors]

Apple has yet to reach a generative AI partnership with Chinese company Baidu, according to a China Daily report citing sources familiar with the matter. Some earlier reports said the two companies had finalized an agreement following discussions. It is possible that the negotiations are still ongoing, but this is not confirmed.

If the partnership does happen, Baidu would likely power some of iOS 18's rumored generative AI features in China only. Generative AI models must receive approval from the Chinese government, and Baidu's Ernie chatbot is permitted in the country. Google's Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbots are not available in China.

Apple has reportedly held similar generative AI partnership discussions with Google and OpenAI for the U.S. market, and likely other countries.

Apple has repeatedly teased that it has generative AI announcements to share later this year, and this likely refers to iOS 18. The software update is rumored to include new generative AI features for a range of iPhone features and apps, including Siri, Spotlight, Apple Music, Health, Messages, Numbers, Pages, Keynote, Shortcuts, and more.

iOS 18 will be previewed at Apple's developers conference WWDC in June, so we're just a few months away from learning about the company's plans.

Article Link: iOS 18 Rumor: Apple and Baidu 'Yet to Reach' Generative AI Partnership

 

[SW3029]

It would be nice if Apple does a country-specific AI partnership approach like this. That way users in countries whose language isn't English don't have to miss out on AI features.

 

[dannyyankou]

It would be nice if Apple does a country-specific AI partnership approach like this. That way users in countries whose language isn't English don't have to miss out on AI features.

It's a shame though that this is even necessary because they want to censor information.

 

[randolorian]

.

 

[a m u n]

Developing a Generative AI that meets the regulatory standards of the US, Europe, and Asia, each governed by its distinct rules, can be a real headache.

 

[gatorvet96]

Seems that if a countries' leadership are confident that their system is the best for the people, that they wouldn't have to hide information from those people. Seems like they are insecure.

 

[lenningj]

Consumer AI fatigue...

 

[satchmo]

Is the DOJ gonna be cool with this?

 

[Beautyspin]

Looks like Apple met somebody who cannot be bullied and is probably giving Apple its own medicine.

 

[lenningj]

I guess this will be similar to choosing your default search engine. 'Where would you like your generative AI requests sent through'

 

[SW3029]

It's a shame though that this is even necessary because they want to censor information.

Yeah but the US wants to ban TikTok, so you can't really get around censorship no matter what country you are in.

 

[GeoStructural]

It would be nice if Apple does a country-specific AI partnership approach like this. That way users in countries whose language isn't English don't have to miss out on AI features.

According to Sundar Pichai, their AI bot taught itself other languages. They trained it exclusively on English and they were surprised when the bot was able to generate content in Indian languages... so that may not even be necessary.

 

[gatorvet96]

Yeah but the US wants to ban TikTok, so you can't really get around censorship no matter what country you are in.

US isn't banning TikTok to censor. It is to keep China from using it to acquire information about the US citizens. Although I can't fathom any valuable information to a government by watching us look at funny videos of kittens or people skateboarding while drinking cranberry juice. LOL

Or maybe it is to see the secret plans of our next stealth bomber. Sarc

 

[charlesdayton]

Is the DOJ gonna be cool with this?

Most probably they will sue Apple because Baidu isn’t popular in the US and the cool kids use Google.

 

[webkit]

Is the DOJ gonna be cool with this?

The DOJ should be ok with it, especially if it is only used for the non-U.S. market.

 

[benface]

Unrelated to the article (sorry) but who designed this and why is it in every article about iOS 18?! 😅

 

[dannyyankou]

Yeah but the US wants to ban TikTok, so you can't really get around censorship no matter what country you are in.

This whole story has been a little misleading. They don't want to ban TikTok. They want it to be sold because of security concerns.

 

[sw1tcher]

US isn't banning TikTok to censor. It is to keep China from using it to acquire information about the US citizens.

When one of the reasons is also the fear of the "spread misinformation beneficial to Beijing" because U.S. lawmakers see TikTok as a news platform, then that is censorship.

Bill that could make TikTok unavailable in the US advances quickly in the House

A bill that could lead to the popular video-sharing app TikTok being unavailable in the United States is quickly gaining traction in the House.

apnews.com

Some lawmakers and critics of TikTok have argued the Chinese government could force the company to share data on American users. TikTok says it has never done that and wouldn’t do so if asked. The U.S. government also hasn’t provided evidence of that happening.

Critics also claim the app could be used to spread misinformation beneficial to Beijing.

[ . . . ]

“Today, it’s about our bill and it’s about intimidating members considering that bill, but tomorrow it could be misinformation or lies about an election, about a war, about any number of things,” Gallagher said. “This is why we can’t take a chance on having a dominant news platform in America controlled or owned by a company that is behold to the Chinese Communist Party, our foremost adversary.”

 

[Someyoungguy]

When one of the reasons is also the fear of the "spread misinformation beneficial to Beijing" because U.S. lawmakers see TikTok as a news platform, then that is censorship.

Bill that could make TikTok unavailable in the US advances quickly in the House

A bill that could lead to the popular video-sharing app TikTok being unavailable in the United States is quickly gaining traction in the House.

apnews.com

Some lawmakers and critics of TikTok have argued the Chinese government could force the company to share data on American users. TikTok says it has never done that and wouldn’t do so if asked. The U.S. government also hasn’t provided evidence of that happening.

Critics also claim the app could be used to spread misinformation beneficial to Beijing.

[ . . . ]

“Today, it’s about our bill and it’s about intimidating members considering that bill, but tomorrow it could be misinformation or lies about an election, about a war, about any number of things,” Gallagher said. “This is why we can’t take a chance on having a dominant news platform in America controlled or owned by a company that is behold to the Chinese Communist Party, our foremost adversary.”

Beijing has no right to free speech in the US.

 

[SoldOnApple]

Baudi isn't the only approved AI in China. Alibaba have one and it's open source, Apple could really change the shape of AI in China by going with Alibaba for now, with the view of developing and forking their own open source AI down the line. I doubt Apple would consider Tencent, but 360 Group's AI is a good option, they've been at it for at least as long a Baidu.

Being the AI effectively baked into the device would be a huge advantage for any of the approved AIs, compared to needing to run as an app or manually added to the phone in the settings.

 

[gatorvet96]

When one of the reasons is also the fear of the "spread misinformation beneficial to Beijing" because U.S. lawmakers see TikTok as a news platform, then that is censorship.

Bill that could make TikTok unavailable in the US advances quickly in the House

A bill that could lead to the popular video-sharing app TikTok being unavailable in the United States is quickly gaining traction in the House.

apnews.com

Some lawmakers and critics of TikTok have argued the Chinese government could force the company to share data on American users. TikTok says it has never done that and wouldn’t do so if asked. The U.S. government also hasn’t provided evidence of that happening.

Critics also claim the app could be used to spread misinformation beneficial to Beijing.

[ . . . ]

“Today, it’s about our bill and it’s about intimidating members considering that bill, but tomorrow it could be misinformation or lies about an election, about a war, about any number of things,” Gallagher said. “This is why we can’t take a chance on having a dominant news platform in America controlled or owned by a company that is behold to the Chinese Communist Party, our foremost adversary.”

As someone else said, the right to free speech under the Amendment to the US Constitution applies to American Citizens. Not to foreign entities or governments.

Also when TikTok says "we have never shared information and never will" I call BS on that, as China uses force to get what they want and has full control as deemed necessary. .

 

[sw1tcher]

As someone else said, the right to free speech under the Amendment to the US Constitution applies to American Citizens. Not to foreign entities or governments.

Not according to the U.S. Supreme Court:

Does The U.S. Constitution Apply To Undocumented Immigrants?

To understand why the Constitution applies to non-citizens, it helps to understand a bit more about the legal document that’s been law of the land since 1789.

First, the biggest controversy over whether rights outlined in the Constitution apply to non-citizens comes from language within the document, which states that rights apply to ‘citizens.’

The problem therein is that, when the document was written, there was no set definition for ‘citizens.’ The Constitution was not written with the idea of safeguarding against people who live in the United States, but with the idea of protecting the rights of those within it.

To that end, the U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted Constitutional rights as applying to all people residing in the U.S., regardless of immigration status — including natural born citizens, legal immigrants, and non-citizens.


Though some 1st Amendment rights can and have been limited.

Court said aliens are entitled to lesser First Amendment rights

Supreme Court precedents hold that aliens are entitled to lesser First Amendment protections while seeking to enter the United States, because an alien has no right to enter the country, as per United States ex rel. Knauff v. Shaughnessy (1950).


Still, the point is that even non-U.S. citizens (a.k.a aliens) do have 1st Amendment rights...

Once an alien lawfully enters and resides in this country he becomes invested with the rights guaranteed by the Constitution to all people within our borders.”

In that case, the Court reversed the deportation of labor activist Harry Bridges, an Australian, because of statements he had made that prosecutors charged indicated “affiliation” with the Communist Party. Writing for the Court, Justice William O. Douglas concluded that “freedom of speech and of the press is accorded aliens residing in this country. . . ."

 

[name99]

It's a shame though that this is even necessary because they want to censor information.

Yeah, completely unlike the US AI companies...

(Ah, but you can't trust their Ministry of Truth, whereas you can totally trust our Ministry of Truth.)

 

[name99]

Unrelated to the article (sorry) but who designed this and why is it in every article about iOS 18?! 😅

View attachment 2362767

My assumption is that it's a nod to this sort of thing:

What type of features (color/edges/texture) is a convolution neural network trying to detect?

Answer (1 of 2): that will depend on the depth of the network and the input data of the network. Most of them are doing all of the above. With low level features being edges and color patterns, with higher level patterns combining these into texture, and shape features. CS231n Convolutional Neur...

www.quora.com

The way the multiple different convolutions applied to an image detected different features (edges at different angles, and textures).
Of course this is old-school! The hot new stuff is language; but I'm not aware of any sort of iconic image for LLMs equivalent to this iconic image for vision. Maybe an image of a transformer network will, over the next few years, begin to occupy that role?

 

[4tune8chance]

Apple has yet to reach a generative AI partnership with Chinese company Baidu, according to a China Daily report citing sources familiar with the matter. Some earlier reports said the two companies had finalized an agreement following discussions. It is possible that the negotiations are still ongoing, but this is not confirmed.

If the partnership does happen, Baidu would likely power some of iOS 18's rumored generative AI features in China only. Generative AI models must receive approval from the Chinese government, and Baidu's Ernie chatbot is permitted in the country. Google's Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbots are not available in China.

Apple has reportedly held similar generative AI partnership discussions with Google and OpenAI for the U.S. market, and likely other countries.

Apple has repeatedly teased that it has generative AI announcements to share later this year, and this likely refers to iOS 18. The software update is rumored to include new generative AI features for a range of iPhone features and apps, including Siri, Spotlight, Apple Music, Health, Messages, Numbers, Pages, Keynote, Shortcuts, and more.

iOS 18 will be previewed at Apple's developers conference WWDC in June, so we're just a few months away from learning about the company's plans.

Article Link: iOS 18 Rumor: Apple and Baidu 'Yet to Reach' Generative AI Partnership

Has Apple learned nothing over the last couple of years! Stop giving away your tech to the CCP.