Apple took advantage of this Worldwide Developers Conference 24 on June 10 to announce its response to all the competition’s advances in artificial intelligence: Apple Intelligence. A way to take advantage of everything that those from Cupertino have learned over the years, combine it with what has been developed by other companies such as OpenAI, give it your personal touch by integrating all the information on our iPhone and by the constant focus on privacy, and launch something unique to the market. It is not available yet. It will be launched little by little, in some territories and only in American English, throughout the year and with some functions arriving in 2025. However, Apple could find itself in trouble launching its Apple Intelligence in China. The problem: regulation.
China is another world. Are very yours for some things, and they are quite reluctant to let foreign technology enter the country without having analyzed and studied it much beforehand. In fact, when it comes to artificial intelligence, any service that uses it must be approved by the Chin Cyberspace Administrationto. The name is powerful, you have to give it to them. But what is the problem? that there are only Chinese artificial intelligence services on that list, and it does not seem that they are going to authorize the inclusion of foreign services on it. Much less from the United States, a country with which historically they have not gotten along very well.
Apple Intelligence? Yes, except in China
What does this mean? Well, Apple will not be able to have its own technology for everything related to Apple Intelligence. Those from Cupertino would have to “outsource” data processing to one of the artificial intelligence companies approved by Chinese regulators. In fact, a report from The Wall Street Journal explains that in Cupertino they lightly explored the possibility of including themselves on that list as a way of exceptionbut there was no luck, and then contacts began with these companies in the country:
“Earlier this year, Apple explored the possibility of obtaining approval for a foreign LLM to be used in its devices in China, but realized that Chinese regulators were unlikely to approve it, according to people familiar with the matter. That conclusion led Apple to intensify conversations with potential local partners.
Apple has held talks with several Chinese companies that offer artificial intelligence models, including Baidu, the search engine company, Alibaba Group, an e-commerce leader, and Baichuan AI, a Beijing-based startup.”
The problem is that he has already suffered this same thing Samsung with some features of its S24, and local companies are not as prepared as the American ones. He says Wall Street Journal that:
“Baidu’s AI capabilities have drawn some unfavorable reviews from Chinese netizens. Some compared Google’s AI on the Galaxy S24 with Baidu and found that Google was able to identify models of cars and buildings from photographs, while Baidu was not.”
It remains to be seen how Apple resolves this problem in China—if it resolves it at all—but what is clear is that there is more than one worker in China. Apple legal department that he will not be able to stop thinking about China for the rest of the year to try to save the ballot and bring Apple Intelligence to this country as well.
