Alibaba Group Holding has released its updated Qwen3 family of artificial intelligence (AI) models that could signal the potential roll-out in China of machine-learning technology on a range of Apple devices, including iPhones, iPads and MacBooks.
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In a Monday post on social media platform X, the Qwen team of Alibaba’s cloud computing unit said it launched open-source Qwen3 models optimised for Apple’s MLX framework for machine learning. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
The MLX framework is intended to be user-friendly, but still efficient in training and deploying AI models on Apple’s silicon hardware. It has seen growing adoption among developers within the Apple ecosystem.
Open source gives public access to a software program’s source code, allowing third-party developers to modify or share its design, fix broken links or scale up its capabilities.
This latest development appears to reflect Apple’s efforts to expand the availability of its Apple Intelligence suite to mainland China. Under Chinese rules, any models that are part of Apple Intelligence would need regulatory approval for public release in the country.
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The Post reported in February that Apple had struck a deal to use Alibaba’s Qwen models for Apple Intelligence on the mainland, citing sources familiar with the matter. Internationally, Apple Intelligence uses OpenAI’s GPT models.