Chinese state media: during an interview, Tim Cook says China has approved Apple Intelligence, and a test version will arrive in late October without Siri AI (Reuters)

Apple chairman Tim Cook stated in an interview with The Paper that Apple Intelligence has been approved in China. A test version is expected to arrive in late October, according to Techmeme, which cited Chinese state media. TechRepublic reports that the initial set of approved features includes Writing Tools, Live Translation, and Clean Up in Photos, but the rollout is expected to exclude the upgraded Siri AI assistant.

While Cook mentioned an October test, TechRepublic notes that Bloomberg reported Apple is targeting a December release via iOS 27.3. The company reportedly received initial regulatory clearance in July and additional permits on September 29.

Separately, Meta has launched a new open-weight AI model called Muse Spark Open. Meta claims the model is optimized to run on Apple’s M5 Ultra chips. According to Malay Mail, Meta's chief of AI Alexandr Wang stated the model is the most capable US open-weight model to date, designed for coding and complex software engineering.

Brief written by urgent.news from Techmeme, Malay Mail, TechRepublic — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.