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Apple is reportedly preparing its first AI features for China in December, according to Bloomberg
IA en un minuto newsroom · Editor: Jon Elgezabal
In 30 seconds
Bloomberg reports that Apple plans to bring Apple Intelligence to China in December with iOS 27.3, something the company has not confirmed. Siri AI and image creation would not be part of that package, which would bring Clean Up, writing tools, Genmoji and notification summaries. To get the green light, Apple has accepted filters designed with Alibaba that let the government approve every update to its models.
Apple is preparing to launch Apple Intelligence, its set of artificial intelligence features, in China with the iOS 27.3 update in December, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, October 14, citing its own sources. Apple has not announced it.
The rollout would be partial. According to Bloomberg, Siri AI, Apple's new assistant, and other features presented this year would be left out, and Apple's own image creation tools would not be there either. Some text generation features would also face limits in certain apps. The first package would include Genmoji, for making custom emoji, AI notification summaries, the writing tools and Clean Up, the Photos feature that erases objects from pictures.
To win approval, Apple has had to give ground on several points. In China, unlike elsewhere, the platform carries safeguards built with Alibaba, among them a filter through which the government can sign off on each new update to the AI models. Apple is also teaming up with Baidu on search and Siri features. According to 9to5Mac, Chinese rules on AI-generated content, security reviews and algorithm registration have forced the company down a different path than in other markets.
On September 29, Apple obtained Chinese permits for recent iPhones to use Apple Intelligence and Alibaba's AI models, among them Tongyi Wanxiang and Qwen. Hours before the Bloomberg story, the South China Morning Post had reported that Chinese regulators cleared the use of Alibaba's models in Apple Intelligence, following a preliminary approval in July, and that the iPhone Duo was due to launch in China the following week.
Bloomberg notes that Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and other makers already offer their own AI features in China, and sees it as unclear how much Apple will gain by arriving with a relatively basic feature set unveiled two years ago. In Europe, Siri AI is not available either because of regulatory issues: on Tuesday, October 13, in the footnotes to its HomeView announcement, Apple said it is "working constructively with the EU" to find a way forward.
Why it matters · analysis and opinion
The cost of entering China is not technical but a matter of control: Apple would accept that a filter in the government's hands decides which version of its models reaches users, and that search and Siri depend on local partners. With Siri AI also blocked in Europe for regulatory reasons, the case shows how each major market ends up getting a different AI depending on its rules. Against Huawei, Xiaomi or Oppo, which already have their own features, the package that would arrive is modest, so Apple's edge will depend more on its brand and its new phones than on AI. Anyone who builds or sells iPhone apps in China would do well not to take for granted features that already exist elsewhere: Apple has not yet confirmed either the dates or the scope.
Source: 9to5Mac · Written with the help of AI: how we make the news
