App developers called Alibaba’s open-source Qwen models the ‘ideal’ choice, as news of the deal lifted sentiment about Apple’s China prospects. — SCMP
Apple’s deal to put Alibaba Group Holding’s artificial intelligence (AI) models on the iPhone has Chinese developers buzzing about the potential of the partnership ahead of the US tech giant’s conference in Shanghai next month.
The partnership with Alibaba could be a boon for both local developers and for Apple itself, which has been struggling in China amid uncertainty over its AI offerings. Under Chinese rules, any models that are part of Apple Intelligence, a major feature of new iPhones, would need regulatory approval for public release in the country.
The South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday that the iPhone maker had struck a deal to use Alibaba’s Qwen models for Apple Intelligence in mainland China, citing sources familiar with the matter. Internationally, Apple Intelligence uses OpenAI’s GPT models.
Online tech news outlet The Information was the first to report the Alibaba deal. Neither Apple nor Alibaba, which owns the Post, have commented on the news.
While there is still no timeline for the launch of Apple Intelligence in China, news of the partnership has cheered up the country’s iOS developer community and contributed to speculation that the US tech giant’s AI features could go online before its Shanghai developer conference on March 25.
Developer Albert Li, who is based in Beijing, said on Feb 12 that Qwen is “ideal for independent developers like me”. Li has been building an iOS notebook app since late 2023. He said the native integration of Alibaba’s AI could make it easier for him to add new features.
Zhang Yuli, the head programmer at a Shanghai-based studio that develops casual mobile games for iOS and Android, said he expected the new AI features to help his team improve efficiency in both developing new games and rolling out version updates of existing titles.
Some developers are wary of how new AI features could contribute to rising costs, as AI models can be notoriously expensive to run. Zhang said he would “definitely use it if it’s free”.
While those registered with Apple’s developer programme have to pay an annual fee of US$99, or 688 yuan (RM420) in mainland China, Apple Intelligence is currently free for iOS developers to use in overseas markets.
Alibaba’s stock price surged 8.5% to HK$113.8 (RM65.13) in Hong Kong on Feb 12. Apple shares rose 2.2% to US$232.62 (RM1,036.86) in New York on Feb 11.
Industry insiders said that Alibaba’s cutting-edge AI models, along with the ecommerce giant’s expertise in the Chinese market and its large supply of computing power as the country’s dominant cloud service provider, made it a likely choice for Apple, which has been struggling to compete with local smartphone brands such as Huawei Technologies to Xiaomi.
Apple saw its smartphone shipments in China plummet 25% to 13.1 million units in the three months through December, down from 17.5 million a year earlier, according to data released by research firm Canalys last month.
Apple reportedly spoke to other Chinese tech giants, including Tencent Holdings and TikTok owner ByteDance, before landing on Alibaba as a partner. It had a deal with Baidu last year, but that fell apart over issues around AI model development and access to user data, The Information previously reported.
Alibaba launched its latest Qwen2.5-Max large language model during the Lunar New Year holiday. Previously released models under the Qwen family, which includes open-source models that other developers can modify, have proven to be popular options among researchers looking for base models to build upon.
Shortly after its release, the newest version of Qwen, which is currently closed-source, ranked seventh on Chatbot Arena, a benchmarking project developed by computer scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, topping DeepSeek-V3 in a range of assessments. – South China Morning Post
