Apple is in talks with Tencent and TikTok owner ByteDance about integrating its artificial intelligence models into iPhones sold in China, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
The US firm this month started rolling out OpenAI’s ChatGPIT across its devices, part of the Apple Intelligence product that allows its Siri voice assistant to tap the chatbot’s expertise about things like photos and documents like presentations. Contains user questions.
ChatGPIT is not available in China and the country’s regulatory requirements state that generative AI services must seek government approval before public release, forcing Apple to seek local partners for its AI features when in the country. Its market share is declining.
Apple’s discussions with Tencent and ByteDance on using its AI models are in the very early stages, said the sources, who declined to be named because the talks are not public.
ByteDance declined to comment, while Apple and Tencent did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A successful partner for Apple’s AI services in China could be a major winner in the country’s increasingly crowded AI sector where dozens of big language models have been launched by big tech companies as well as startups.
These include ByteDance’s Dubao, Tencent’s Hunyuan and search engine giant Baidu’s Ernie.
Apple and Baidu are reportedly in talks about using the latter’s AI models in China, but it was reported this month that discussions faced setbacks due to technical issues, including how to train AI models. Including controversy over using iPhone user data.
Baidu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The absence of AI capabilities in the latest iPhones sold in China has come as a major blow to Apple as its market share faces a decline in the world’s largest smartphone market due to increasing competition from domestic brands including Huawei. .
Huawei, which returned to the high-end market in August with phones using Chinese-made chips, last month launched its Mate 70 series featuring AI capabilities powered by its proprietary large language model.
Apple briefly dropped out of China’s top five smartphone vendors in the second quarter before recovering in the third quarter. The US company’s smartphone sales in China fell 0.3 percent during the third quarter from a year earlier, while Huawei’s sales surged 42 percent, according to research firm IDC.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
