AI services for Apple iPhone16 and Mac by Baidu

AI services for Apple iPhone16 and Mac products sold in China will be provided by Baidu.

The AI large model functions on the upcoming Chinese-version iPhone 16 series, Mac systems, and iOS 18 this year may be provided by Baidu (Wenxin Yiyan). Reports say that Apple had previously negotiated with Alibaba and another domestic large model company, and finally decided to have Baidu provide this service. Apple is expected to charge by adopting an API interface.

Apple’s choice to hand over the AI functions of the Chinese-version devices to the domestic large model is mainly due to compliance requirements, as Chinese law requires that models must be approved by the regulatory authorities before they can be used.

As for non-Chinese-version iPhones, last week, there were rumors that Apple was in talks with Google to license its Gemini model to support some generative AI functions in the upcoming iOS 18. It is said that they also talked with OpenAI about a possible deal.

Since the beginning of last year, Apple has been committed to developing and testing its own generative artificial intelligence system (internally called Ajax), and employees have also been testing a chatbot called Apple GPT.

Bloomberg reported that Apple’s development of generative AI tools is still far behind its competitors, so collaborating with external parties seems like a more cost-effective deal.

iOS 18 is expected to include many AI-driven features, some of which are processed on the device, while others are passed on to the back-end model running in the cloud.

So Apple’s AI products may end up in such a form: local own model + cloud third-party model, and functions such as text and image generation are realized through third parties. For example, Google Gemini will help enhance the phone’s ability to generate images and write articles based on user prompts.