Apple Intelligence is coming to China with Alibaba's Qwen built in

Apple has announced it will open beta testing for iPhone 18 Pro users in China on November 4, and launch the first batch of Apple Intelligence core features in China with the iOS 27.3 update in December. Apple confirmed it will use Alibaba's Qwen model across three experiences: Siri, Writing Tools, and Visual Intelligence, covering text and image understanding. Users can access Qwen in Apple Intelligence by signing in with a Qwen account or using Sign in with Apple, similar to how ChatGPT works. Siri will call on Qwen for certain requests, letting users ask questions about photos and documents like PDFs and presentations. Writing Tools can create original content from scratch, while Visual Intelligence uses the camera to understand nearby objects and places. This update marks the first time Apple Intelligence lands in China.