Apple says Mac users in China can connect to Alibaba's Qwen AI service
Apple has released a guide for Mac users in China to integrate Alibaba's Qwen AI models into Siri and system-wide writing tools. This move is a strategic effort to regain market share in China's competitive AI PC sector by offering locally compliant generative AI features.
Why it matters
This integration demonstrates how global tech giants must adapt their AI strategies to meet local regulatory and competitive demands in the Chinese market.
Apple has published a guide explaining how eligible Mac users in mainland China can connect Alibaba’s Qwen artificial-intelligence service to the U.S. tech giant’s Siri digital assistant and Writing Tools feature.
The Mac-specific arrangement could help Apple compete in China’s AI PC market, where it has been losing market share as domestic manufacturers such as Lenovo have promoted locally developed AI features.
Qwen is Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba’s family of generative-AI models, which can create text and images and analyse documents, photos and other material in response to user prompts.
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.
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