Apple says Mac users in China can connect to Alibaba's Qwen AI service
Qwen is Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba’s family of generative-AI models
Apple has released instructions guiding eligible Mac users in mainland China on linking Alibaba's Qwen artificial intelligence service to Siri, its digital assistant, and the Writing Tools feature. This arrangement could assist Apple in contesting China's AI PC market, a domain where the company has been experiencing a decline in market share due to the rise of local manufacturers emphasizing domestically developed AI capabilities.
Qwen, Alibaba's suite of generative AI models, excels in generating text and images, as well as analyzing documents, photos, and other content in response to user prompts. The updated Chinese guide from Apple indicates that users who choose to participate can leverage Qwen through Siri for more nuanced responses, including the analysis of images and documents.
Additionally, Writing Tools can utilize Qwen to generate text or images based on a description. This extension is designed for Macs running macOS 26.6 or newer, contingent on specific conditions in China. To utilize the extension, users must activate it and log into a Qwen account. Alibaba explicitly states that it will not utilize the materials to train or enhance its models.
Mac shipments in mainland China experienced a 9% year-over-year decline to approximately 800,000 units, giving Apple a 9% share of the PC market, trailed by Lenovo's 31% and Huawei's 16% share, according to Omdia. Lenovo has positioned its Tianxi personal AI agent as a cornerstone of its AI-PC strategy, while Huawei is integrating AI features into its HarmonyOS ecosystem.
By connecting Qwen to Siri and Writing Tools, Apple provides a legally compliant avenue to offer enhanced document, image, and content creation functionalities while maintaining control over the Mac interface. For Alibaba, this integration could expand Qwen's reach beyond its existing applications and cloud services. Alibaba has announced plans to incorporate Qwen into Apple Intelligence across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro software in China, although Apple's newly published guide focuses on Macs alone. The guide does not specify which version of Qwen will be employed for the Mac extension.
Written by urgent.news from The Hindu - Sci-Tech's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
