Famous journalist reveals: Apple AI may launch in the Chinese market with iOS 18.6, supported by Alibaba and Baidu

According to Zhitong Finance APP, Apple Intelligence (AAPL.US) officially launched in some overseas markets last year but has yet to launch in the Chinese market. However, well-known Apple leaker Mark Gurman revealed that Apple AI is expected to enable some features for the first time in mainland China with the iOS 18.6 system, supported by technology from Alibaba (BABA.US) and Baidu (BIDU.US). It is reported that Baidu's Wenxin Yiyan large model will serve as the core cloud intelligent engine for Apple AI in the Chinese market. Meanwhile, to ensure that AI content complies with domestic regulations, Apple will also introduce a review mechanism provided by Alibaba to conduct local compliance audits on AI-generated content. In addition, Mark Gurman also revealed that iOS 19 will introduce new AI features, with specific details yet to be announced. Notably, Google CEO Sundar Pichai previously testified in court that "iOS 19 may integrate Google Gemini services." Apple has achieved system-level integration of ChatGPT through iOS 18.2, allowing Siri to directly call ChatGPT to respond to queries after user authorization, and the writing tool also supports calling its text and image generation functions. If Gemini ultimately passes Apple's review, it will become the second optional AI service after ChatGPT. However, there remains significant uncertainty about whether iOS 18.6 can truly bring Apple Intelligence to Chinese users, as this process has been delayed multiple times. Initially, there were rumors that Apple AI would launch in the Chinese market with iOS 18.4, which was then postponed to 18.5, and now it is rumored to debut in 18.6. Apple's recently released financial results for the second fiscal quarter of 2025 (first quarter of 2025) show that the company's revenue in Greater China fell 2% year-on-year to $16 billion, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of year-on-year revenue decline for Apple in the Chinese market. Part of the reason is that when Apple AI first appeared in June 2023, Apple stated that it would introduce it to the Chinese market, but currently, Apple's AI services have not officially landed in China, while AI features have become one of the most important selling points in the current smartphone market. According to the development schedule, the iOS 18.6 beta is planned to start testing later this month. iOS 19 will be officially announced at the WWDC global developer conference starting on June 10, and the first beta is expected to be pushed to developers immediately after the event, with the official version expected to be released to the public in September