China has granted approval for Alibaba Group Holding’s artificial intelligence models to be integrated into several Apple handsets, including the new iPhone Duo, in the Chinese market, clearing a key regulatory hurdle for the long-delayed launch of Apple Intelligence in the country.
Updated network access permits for the iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro and several earlier Apple models from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology now include three approved AI systems: Apple Intelligence alongside Alibaba’s Tongyi Qianwen and Tongyi Wanxiang.
Tongyi Qianwen, also known as Qwen, is a family of large language models developed by Alibaba Cloud, while Tongyi Wanxiang specialises in AI text-to-image and video generation. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
