Apple Intelligence in China Will Reportedly Be Backed by Baidu’s Ernie 4.0 AI Model

Apple Intelligence, the company’s in-house suite of artificial intelligence (AI) features for its devices, will reportedly be provided by Baidu’s AI models in China. The Cupertino-based tech giant has so far not released its new AI features in the European Union countries and China due to regulatory obstacles. While the problem in the EU largely revolves around user privacy and interoperability concerns, in China only the AI models that are approved by the government are permitted to operate. This is why Apple has reportedly formed a partnership with Baidu to introduce AI features in the country.

Apple Reportedly Partners With Baidu

The Information reported that Apple and the Chinese search giant have partnered for Apple Intelligence features in the country. Since Apple is struggling to get approval for its native large language models (LLMs), the iPhone maker has reportedly resorted to partnering with local AI firms to provide the backend processing for its AI features.

As per the report, Apple’s AI tools will be powered by Baidu’s Ernie 4.0 multimodal AI model, which was released in October 2023. This partnership is different from the one the iPhone maker has made with OpenAI. In the case of the latter, ChatGPT is only used for certain features, and the user will be notified of the same. However, Baidu will reportedly handle all the generative AI tasks for the company.

Apple will reportedly also be paying Baidu to use the Ernie 4.0 AI model, whereas the deal with OpenAI is said to not involve any monetary transaction. Apple Intelligence will also not include ChatGPT support in China.

However, the duo are facing certain challenges in streamlining the AI capabilities for Apple devices. According to the report, engineers from both companies are working hard to optimise Baidu’s LLM, however, the Ernie 4.0 AI model is struggling to comprehend prompts and provide accurate responses for the scenarios where an iPhone user might need the AI.

Another challenge is said to be on the privacy front. Baidu reportedly wants to collect data from Apple users who use the AI-powered search feature. However, this will break the privacy policy of the Cupertino-based tech giant as it will require a separate approach from the on-device design of Apple Intelligence and the Private Cloud Compute model. Notably, the company highlighted that user data accessed during the processing of the AI features will not leave the device at WWDC earlier this year.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the report claimed that Apple and Baidu will have to solve these issues before Apple Intelligence can be released in China.