Apple Intelligence is coming to China. Alibaba has forged ahead, releasing its new Qwen3 AI models built for Apple’s MLX system. Reuters caught the story first. With this, Apple’s smart features will land in Chinese hands for the first time. iOS 18.4 brought the language. Now, finally, comes the mind.

Why China Requires Local AI Models

Back in February, Bloomberg laid it out. Apple made a deal. The Chinese government said: if you want to run AI here, you use our models. Apple nodded. That’s how it works in China. This only counts for devices bought within the borders. If your iPhone came from outside, it keeps the original Apple Intelligence. No swap, no filter. 

Alibaba and Baidu to Power China’s Version of Apple Intelligence

Now that the tech is landing, Alibaba will watch what it says. The government wants it clean and proper. No trouble. No wild ideas. Censorship is part of the deal. For the rest — the images, the search — Baidu steps in. They’ll take the wheel on those. Apple lets them. It’s the only way in.

Apple Intelligence runs on three kinds of AI now. The core work — the models on the device — stays with Apple. But in China, Alibaba adds a layer. It watches the words. Cuts out what the government won’t allow. The server work shifts to GBCD, Apple’s iCloud partner in China. Visual Intelligence? That’s Baidu’s job.

China Rollout Timeline

No one knows the day Apple Intelligence will go live in China. Could be with iOS 18.6. That’s set to drop in about a month. Testing just kicked off, right alongside the iOS 26 beta. Not much new is expected in 18.6, but the AI rollout could be the big one.

iOS 26 brings small changes. A few, but they matter.

ChatGPT gets sharper. You can ask it about anything on your screen — a photo, a passage, a name — and it’ll explain.

Visual Intelligence acts like Circle to Search now. You snap a shot — say, a jacket — and it hunts for matches, stores, answers.

Genmoji gets a spark. You can mix it with regular emoji, even throw in some words. A smile with horns. A pizza with wings. Make what you want. That’s the idea.

Final Words

And there you have it: Apple Intelligence is now ready to talk Mandarin, but it will have to have a government translator in its ear. The tech giant has basically said that it will play by the rules set by Beijing, since when you are interested in selling iPhones to 1.4 billion people, you do not question the house rules. It is a very interesting game of international technology and local politics. Apple controls the brain, Alibaba controls the mouth, and Baidu controls the eyes. It can be considered as AI on training wheels, Chinese style. OK, maybe your digital assistant is a little more… polite, than its Western counterpart. It is a question of whether this sanitized taste of artificial intelligence will be palatable to Chinese consumers. There is one thing that is definite, Siri is going to receive a very different education.