Apple Intelligence was first announced in 2024 with iOS 18, but Apple struggled to make it available in two regions – the EU and China. Bloomberg reports that Cupertino will finally check the latter off the list with an upcoming update.
iOS 27.3, which is expected in December, will enable Apple Intelligence for the Chinese market. While Apple uses Google’s Gemini in the West, it has struck a deal with Alibaba to use its Qwen and Tongyi Wanxiang models.
Qwen is a general AI model and will likely power most features. However, Siri AI will reportedly not be part of the iOS 27.3 release. Also, text generation will be restricted inside some apps. The problem isn’t technological but rather one of local regulations instead.
Tongyi Wanxiang is an image and video generation model, so it will handle image editing tasks. However, local laws will prevent Apple from launching its Image Playground feature. Overall, Apple Intelligence in China will have fewer features than in the US, for example. However, China is not the only region with such limitations.
Siri AI is not available in the EU either – not on phones, tablets or watches, anyway. Here’s some fine print from the September update for Siri AI and Apple Intelligence: “Mac and Apple Vision Pro users in the EU will be able to access Siri AI when set to a supported language. Siri AI will not be available initially in the EU in iOS, iPadOS and watchOS.” Mark Gurman from Bloomberg says that we shouldn’t expect Siri AI anytime soon in either China or the EU.
Source (paywall) | Via 1 | Via 2
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