Tim Cook praises China's AI DeepSeek
During one of his frequent visits to China, the Apple CEO spoke about Apple Intelligence in China – and wooed local players.
Apple boss Cook, here in Beijing: AI as an iPhone sales argument in China.
(Image: Tim Cook / Weibo)
Apple Intelligence is to come to China as soon as possible. As the Communist Party does not allow purely US technology for this, Apple is reliant on local partners. (Also) for this purpose, CEO Tim Cook has once again visited the Middle Kingdom – and had nothing but good things to say about Chinese AI in front of local media. This applies in particular to the hyped start-up DeepSeek, whose models are said to be particularly efficient.
Cook in Beijing and then probably in Shanghai
According to a report in the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, Cook gave DeepSeek a warm recommendation on the sidelines of the China Development Forum in Beijing. He told the China News Service that DeepSeek's models were "excellent". However, Cook is not said to have given any further details –, such as why he thinks so. In Beijing, Cook was out and about with local influencers, among others, as he shared on the short messaging service Weibo, including photos. Next week, Apple is planning a developer conference in Shanghai that will focus specifically regarding AI in China. The aim is for local developers to learn how they can use the technology in their apps.
Cook is a regular visitor to China and has been there at least three times in the last year, partly to create a good mood for iPhone sales, which are said to have slumped in the country because users are increasingly buying Chinese brands. Added to this is the pressure from the new US government under Donald Trump to relocate production domestically – and its tariffs on Chinese manufacturing.
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Alibaba to supply Apple with its AI
Apple plans to offer Apple Intelligence in more languages as early as April. Chinese is also on the agenda. Whether this means that the local partner will already be on board remains to be seen. In February, it was reported that e-commerce giant Alibaba had allegedly won the race with its Qwen models. ChatGPT from OpenAI is not officially approved in China.
How Apple will deal with its voice models and image generators in China remains to be seen. DeepSeek has been praised for its capabilities, but censors Chinese history, among other things. Recently, however, the hype surrounding the system has died down considerably. OpenAI had accused DeepSeek of copying parts of its technology.
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