AI in China: Apple allegedly in talks with ByteDance and Tencent

According to a media report, Apple is in talks with the Chinese tech companies Tencent and ByteDance to find a partner with whom the iPhone manufacturer can also launch its artificial intelligence in China. So far, the search for a solution for market entry in the Far East has proved difficult. An initial attempt with another AI provider has apparently failed. China only allows generative AI services with prior official approval. Apple apparently needs a local partner for this.

While Apple customers in the European Union can breathe a sigh of relief now that Apple has promised an AI launch in April 2025, Chinese customers still have to worry. According to analysts, competitive pressure is particularly high in China. Firstly, there are various domestic manufacturers there who are already focusing a great deal of attention on AI functions. Secondly, customer expectations with regard to AI are also very high. Apple's smartphone sales declined slightly in the third quarter, while competitors such as Huawei recorded 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 on the Chinese market. ByteDance's AI is called Doubao, while Tencent's is called Hunyuan. Apple has already held talks with the third in the group, Baidu. However, according to Reuters, these ended unsuccessfully as Baidu had requested iPhone user data in order to train its AI model – Apple, which emphasizes data protection above all in its Apple Intelligence, rejected this in the form requested.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Apple and Baidu were already in the process of adapting the Ernie bot to the needs of the iPhone. However, in addition to the disagreements between the two partners, there were also technical problems because Ernie did not understand commands correctly or did not provide suitable answers.

OpenAI cannot help Apple

Apple's international partner, ChatGPT from OpenAI, is, like Apple, not licensed in China. In general, however, the intended cooperation in China is to go beyond the cooperation with OpenAI. The US tech publication The Information reported, citing unnamed sources, that Baidu's language model was to be implemented at Apple both locally and in the cloud. ChatGPT, on the other hand, is only offered as a supplement in Apple Intelligence. Requests that Apple's AI cannot answer can be forwarded to OpenAI's language model at the user's request and with data protection.

(mki)