Apple Intelligence in China: Is Apple allowing other language models on iPhone?

Apple has reportedly partnered with local Google counterpart Baidu to bring AI capabilities to iPhones in the crucial Chinese market. Like the EU, Apple Intelligence is not yet available in China, where the relevant approval is apparently missing. Developers from Apple and Baidu are working hard to adapt Baidu’s language model for the iPhone, The Information’s report citing informed people,

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What insights does Ernie Bot get?

The report says this partnership goes far beyond Apple’s ChatGPT integration into Apple Intelligence: Baidu’s Ernie 4 language model will be available both natively on iPhone and in the cloud. According to the report, Ernie has been at a loss so far, the language model does not understand commands correctly and does not provide appropriate answers for common iPhone application scenarios, writes The Information.

With iCloud data, Apple had to make equally serious compromises and work with local providers to store data from Chinese iCloud accounts. Since 2022, it has been possible to secure most iCloud data with end-to-end encryption.

In other areas, only Apple’s in-house language model is allowed to work at the operating system level, providing deep insight into user communications: AI already summarizes all messages and emails and will also in the future. will do this; Be able to process personal data stored in different apps for filtering.

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ChatGPT is also integrated as of iOS 18.2, but the user must agree to forward data or trigger it explicitly. Furthermore, Apple and OpenAI promise that the data will not be used for training. Additionally, ChatGPT does not require an account; The IP address should also be hidden when making inquiries.

Baidu reportedly interested in iPhone data

According to the report, Baidu wants to use user data to train and further develop its language models, but has clashed with Apple in the process. It’s still unclear if and when Apple Intelligence will arrive in China. There is now a start date for the EU – it should be in April 2025.

Apple’s AI package is optional; Models are loaded onto the device only after manual activation by the user. AI models work partly locally, but can also access Apple’s servers at any time. According to Apple’s promise, requests should be processed there, but then immediately rejected. In a recent interview, Apple boss Tim Cook dodged the question of whether Apple would open up its apps like Mail and iMessage to other AI providers — but said the company always considers “the implications for privacy.”

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