Apple is in talks with China's two largest technology groups to use its artificial intelligence models in iPhones sold in China.
Sources told Reuters that Apple executives have been in talks with peers from Tencent and TikTok owner ByteDance to discuss integrating their artificial intelligence models into iPhones sold in China.
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The U.S. company this month began rolling out OpenAI's ChatGPT, part of Apple's Intelligence offering, into its devices, allowing the Siri voice assistant to tap into the chatbot's expertise, including user queries for files such as photos and briefings.
but ChatGPT is not available in China National regulatory requirements require generative AI services to obtain government approval before being released publicly. This forces Apple to find local partners for its artificial intelligence capabilities at a time when its market share in China is declining.
Apple's discussions with Tencent and ByteDance about using its artificial intelligence models are in very early stages, according to three sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
ByteDance declined to comment, and Apple and Tencent did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A successful partner for Apple's artificial intelligence services in China could become a major winner in the country's increasingly crowded artificial intelligence field, where big tech companies and startups have launched dozens of large-scale language models.
They include byte-beating Doubao, Tencent's Hunyuan and search engine giant Baidu's Ernie.
Competition with Huawei in China
Apple and Baidu have reportedly been in talks to use the latter's artificial intelligence models in China, but The Information this month reported on the discussions being faced Frustration due to technical issuesincluding the controversy over using iPhone user data to train AI models.
Baidu did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Baidu's Hong Kong-listed shares fell 4.2% after the Reuters report, while the Hang Seng Index fell 0.6%. Tencent shares rose 2.3%.
The latest iPhone sold in China lacks artificial intelligence features, which has become a major setback for Apple. Market share decline The company dominates the world's largest smartphone market amid growing competition from domestic brands such as Huawei.
In August, Huawei returned to the high-end market with phones using Chinese-made chips and launched its own phones. Last month the Mate 70 series had AI capabilities Powered by its proprietary large language model.
Apple fell out of the top five Chinese smartphone manufacturers in the second quarter, but recovered in the third quarter. According to data from research firm IDC, the U.S. company's smartphone sales in China still fell 0.3% in the third quarter compared with the same period last year, while Huawei's sales surged 42%.
- Reuters Additional editing by Jim Pollard
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