Apple faces difficulty integrating Baidu services in China, which could hurt iPhone sales

The Information reported yesterday that Apple’s efforts to integrate Baidu-backed artificial intelligence features into its ecosystem for Chinese users are facing certain challenges, and could ultimately negatively impact iPhone sales in China.

Image Source: Apple

Among other things, these difficulties include problems with understanding queries and accuracy in answering typical queries. Apple, with the help of Baidu, is trying to adapt the latter’s large language models to work in the Apple Intelligence system for the Chinese market. In the third quarter, according to IDC, iPhone sales in China decreased by 0.3%, although Huawei products grew by 42%. Having introduced the iPhone 16 family of smartphones in September, Apple was in no rush to release artificial intelligence features tailored to the Chinese market. Local customers have been asked to wait until next spring.

Differences between Apple and Baidu in the issue of working with user data also became a problem. Apple’s current policy does not allow it to collect data from users who make requests related to the operation of artificial intelligence systems. Baidu would like to store and analyze such data, as the source notes. The Chinese partner intends to allow Apple to implement services based on the latest large language model Ernie 4.0 on its devices. The US company’s Siri voice assistant will also rely on Baidu’s language models to handle queries from Chinese users.