China has granted approval for Alibaba Group Holding’s artificial intelligence models to be integrated into several Apple handsets, including the new iPhone Duo, in the Chinese market, clearing a key regulatory hurdle for the long-delayed launch of Apple Intelligence in the country, reports the South China Morning Post.
Updated network access permits for the iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro and several earlier Apple models from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology now include three approved AI systems: Apple Intelligence alongside Alibaba’s Tongyi Qianwen and Tongyi Wanxiang.
Alibaba is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in e-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology. Its Tongyi Qianwen (commercially branded as Qwen) is a family of large language and multimodal AI models. Tongyi Wanxiang is Alibaba’s AI model for video generation.
Apple has yet to roll out Apple Intelligence on the Chinese mainland, despite receiving regulatory clearance from Beijing in July. The service has already been deployed across other major markets, launching in the United States in 2024 and Europe last year. Core Apple Intelligence features, such as writing and image editing tools, are available in Hong Kong.
