Apple trains its own AI model for China market with Alibaba’s support, sources say

Apple has trained a large language model specifically for the China market, three people familiar with the matter said, a departure from the iPhone maker’s strategy of relying on third-party models to power AI features in the country.

The AI model was developed in partnership with Alibaba Group and trained with the Chinese ​tech giant’s support, the people said, declining to be named as the information is sensitive and not public.

Apple’s training of its ‌own ‌China-specific model has not been reported before. The company had previously leaned toward domestic partners’ models to ​bring generative AI to iPhones and other devices sold in China, where U.S. models such as Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which Apple pairs with its own technology in its home market, are not available.