Apple CEO Tim Cook is looking forward to launching the company’s artificial intelligence system in China, following the successful effort to release the iPhone Air in the vast market.
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Capping his six-day visit to the country last week, Cook said at an event in Shanghai on Saturday that AI was “making a difference in people’s lives” and that Apple was “working on getting [Apple Intelligence] into China right now”. No timeline was provided.
Apple Intelligence – a built-in AI feature of the company’s iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia operating systems – was announced in June last year. Chinese regulatory restrictions have made this feature unavailable on Apple devices used on the mainland and in Hong Kong.
The South China Morning Post in February reported that Apple had struck a deal to use Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen models for Apple Intelligence in China, citing sources familiar with the matter. Internationally, Apple Intelligence uses OpenAI’s GPT models. Alibaba Cloud is the AI and cloud services unit of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the Post.
In Saturday’s onstage discussion with Bai Chong-en, dean of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University, during the Global Asset Management Forum in Shanghai, Cook said AI had the potential to transform businesses, education and healthcare.
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That dialogue reflected Cook’s purposeful, carefully orchestrated engagements with mainland creative talent, business partners, senior government officials, academia and consumers during his visits to China.
