Apple has revealed how the new Siri AI features will work for users in China. The new AI features will be powered by Alibaba’s Qwen models.

While the iPhone maker is partnering with Google for access to its Gemini models in most countries, the Chinese government requires Apple to instead partner with a local AI company …

Google’s Gemini models are powering the new Siri AI features in most countries. These run either on Apple’s own Private Cloud Compute (PCC) servers or on Google-provided servers dedicated to Apple, with protections specific to Siri AI users. These include privacy requirements mirroring those applying to PCC servers, ensuring that neither Apple nor Google has any access to user interactions.

In China, however, the law only permits the use of Chinese AI models. This is likely to ensure that the government is able to monitor usage, and it’s therefore unlikely that the same privacy protections will apply.

Reuters reports that Apple published a guide in which it stated that the new features would rely on Alibaba’s Qwen models. The guide is specific to Mac, but the report says that the same model will be used across iPhone, iPad and Vision Pro also.

Apple’s updated Chinese-language guide says users who opt in can use Qwen through ​Siri for more detailed responses to some requests, including analysis of photos and documents. Writing Tools can also draw on the service to create text or images from a description.

There’s a fairly significant clue that privacy protections will not apply in the same way: Reuters says that Mac users will need their own Qwen account and must be signed into it.

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