Apple is reportedly in discussions with Chinese tech companies Tencent and ByteDance to find a partner that can help launch its Artificial Intelligence (AI) in China. The search for a solution to enter the Far East market has been challenging. An initial attempt with another AI provider apparently failed. China only allows generative AI services with prior government approval, which means Apple needs a local partner.
While Apple customers in the European Union can relax since Apple has announced a potential AI launch in April 2025, Chinese customers are still waiting. According to analysts, the competition in China is particularly intense. First, there are several local manufacturers who already focus heavily on AI features. Second, this raises customer expectations regarding AI.
Apple’s smartphone sales slightly declined in the third quarter, while competitors like Huawei saw significant gains.
First Attempt with Baidu Failed
According to the US news agency Reuters, Apple is currently in early talks with ByteDance and Tencent, both of which have developed AI language models that are among the largest in the Chinese market. ByteDance’s AI is called Doubao, and Tencent’s is called Hunyuan. Apple had previously engaged in discussions with Baidu. However, these talks ended without success because Baidu demanded iPhone user data to train its AI model. Apple, which emphasizes privacy in its Apple Intelligence, refused to comply with this request.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that Apple and Baidu had been working on adapting the Ernie Bot for iPhone needs. However, there were disagreements and technical issues since Ernie did not understand commands correctly or provide appropriate responses.
OpenAI Cannot Assist Apple
Apple’s international partner, ChatGPT from OpenAI, is not approved in China, similar to Apple. The planned collaboration in China aims to go beyond cooperation with OpenAI. The US tech publication The Information reported, citing unnamed sources, that Baidu’s language model was to be implemented both locally and in the cloud for Apple. ChatGPT is offered in Apple Intelligence only as a supplement. Queries that Apple’s AI cannot answer can be forwarded to OpenAI’s language model at the user’s request, with data security ensured.