The Information: Apple Chooses Alibaba as AI Partner in China

Qianer Liu and Jing Yang, reporting for The Information (paywalled, alas — MacRumors summary):

Apple has recently started working with Chinese internet and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group to roll out artificial intelligence features in China, according to one person with direct knowledge of the decision. The move is part of Apple’s strategy to offer more compelling software features to counter declining sales in the country, where it faces increasing competition from domestic brands like Huawei and Vivo.

Apple and Alibaba have submitted the Chinese AI features they co-developed for approval by China’s cyberspace regulator, the person added, indicating that the partnership has gained significant progress. [...]

The iPhone maker began testing different AI models from prominent Chinese AI developers beginning in 2023 and last year selected Baidu as the primary partner, said two of the people. But the collaboration ran into snags because Baidu’s progress in developing its models for Apple Intelligence fell short of Apple standards.

As a result, Apple in recent months started to consider other options, assessing models developed by Tencent, ByteDance, Alibaba, as well as Deepseek, said two people with direct knowledge of the matter. Apple eventually passed over Deepseek’s models because the Deepseek team lacked the manpower and experience required to support a large customer like Apple, said one of the people.

★ Wednesday, 12 February 2025