Apple believes that the future success of the iPhone depends on the availability of new artificial intelligence features. But the tensions between Washington and Beijing can paralyze the plans of the technology giant to deliver the IA in its most important second market, China.
In recent months, the officials of the White House and Congress have examined Apple's plan to conclude an agreement with Alibaba to make the artificial intelligence of Chinese society on the iPhones available in China available, three people said who are familiar with the resolutions. They are concerned that the agreement would help a Chinese company to improve its artificial intelligence skills, expand the scope of Chinese chatbots with censorship limits and deepen the Apple exposure to Beijing's laws for censorship and sharing data.
Control is the last example of the challenges in which Apple faced while trying to support its activities in the United States and China in a moment of growing geopolitical tension. Three years ago, the United States government has managed to put pressure on the company to abandon an agreement to purchase memory chips from a Chinese supplier, the Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation or YMTC. More recently, the company has been challenged by the US rates on Chinese manufacturing products such as the iPhone, threatening to cut the company's profits.
Going away from an alibaba agreement would have much more serious consequences for Apple's affairs in China, which represents almost a fifth of the company's sales. The partnership with Chinese technological society is essential to bring artificial intelligence features to iPhone in one of the most regulated and competitive markets in the world. Without Alibaba's partnership, the iPhones could fall behind smartphones from Chinese rivals such as Huawei and Xiaomi.
The officials of the White House and the China House Committee have directly increased the agreement with the Apple managers, they said that the three people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media. During the meetings in Washington with managers and lobbyists of Senior Apple, government officials asked for the terms of the agreement, which Apple data will share with Alibaba and if he would have signed legal commitments with Chinese regulators. In the meeting with the Chamber Committee in March, Apple managers were unable to answer most of these questions, two of these people said.
Washington's concern for the agreement was accentuated by an in -depth sentence that the IA will become a critical military tool. Technology, which can write and -mail and develop software code, has the potential for coordinating military attacks and checking autonomous drones. Concerned about a future American-cynese conflict, Washington officials have tried to limit Beijing access to AI technology, cutting its ability to do and buy chips.
The representative Raja Krishnamorti of Illinois, the democratic ranking of the permanent permanent committee of the Chamber, said in a declaration that “is extremely disturbing that Apple has not been transparent about his agreement”.
“Alibaba is a child for the military merger strategy of the Chinese Communist Party and because Apple would have chosen to work with them on artificial intelligence is the assumption of anyone,” he said. “There are serious concerns about the fact that this partnership will help Alibaba to collect data to perfect its models, all by allowing Apple to close an eye to the fundamental rights of its Chinese users for iPhone.”
Apple, the White House and Alibaba did not provide comments. Apple did not publicly recognize the artificial intelligence agreement in China, but the president of Alibaba, Joe Tsai, confirmed it publicly in February.
It is feared in Washington that an apple agreement with Alibaba would create a previous problem. US companies could help the Chinese suppliers to reach multiple users and use the data they collect from those users to improve their models. The risk would be that Baidu, Alibaba, Bytedance and other Chinese companies can therefore use these improvements to help Chinese military.
To limit the US-Cinese collaboration, the Trump administration discussed if Alibaba and other Chinese artificial intelligence companies should be put in a list that forbids them to do business with the US companies, said people who are familiar with resolutions. The officials of the Department of Defense and Whancence also examined Alibaba's links with the Chinese Communist Party and the Army of Popular Liberation.
Greg Allen, director of Wadhwani at the Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Think Tank, said that Apple's partnership was in contrast to Bipartisan efforts in Washington to slow down the development of China's artificial intelligence. Apple could be motivated to help Alibaba improve his artificial intelligence system because his Ai could make the iPhones in China more useful, precious and easier to sell.
“The United States are in an artificial intelligence race with China and we do not want American companies to help Chinese companies running faster,” said Allen.
In addition to this check, the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, faced new criticisms from President Trump. During the journey of Mr. Trump through the Middle East last week, he said he had “a small problem” with Mr. Cook because Apple was starting to build products in India rather than in the United States.
“We are not interested in building in India,” said Trump that he had told Mr. Cook. “India can take care of yourself. They are going very well. We want you to build here.”
Last year, Apple renewed the iPhone with new skills that called Apple Intelligence. He said that iPhone users would be able to use its product AI to summarize notifications and obtain access to writing tools that could improve and -mail and other messages. He also revealed a improved Siri virtual assistant who could combine information on a phone, as a message on someone's travel itinerary, with information from the web, as a flight arrival time.
Apple hit a partnership with Openai to support some of his artificial intelligence skills. The chatbot of Openai, chatgpt, is currently answering questions when the iPhone is requested in the United States.
(The New York Times sued Openi and his partner, Microsoft, accusing them of copyright violation regarding the contents of news relating to artificial intelligence systems. Openai and Microsoft have denied these statements.)
Since Openi does not work in Beijing, Apple had to find a local partner to give the iPhones in China the same performance as those in the United States. The company spoke with various Chinese technological companies before concluding an agreement with Alibaba. This year he asked Chinese regulators to approve artificial intelligence features.
Congress officials were alarmed by the fact that Apple had requested the approval of Chinese regulators for the Alibaba partnership, said two people who are familiar with their concerns. Since artificial intelligence is an emerging field, the Commission feared that Apple could make concessions or sign an agreement that would make it subject to Chinese laws.
Apple did not provide an update on when the features will become available on its iPhones in China. During calls with analysts this year, Cook said that iPhone sales were better in the markets where Apple intelligence was available.
If the agreement with Alibaba collapses, there is also a potential chain effect because Alibaba is an important e-commerce dealer who could sell and market iPhone, said Richard Kramer, Senior analyst of Arete Research, a consultancy company on investments. He said that the type of partnership had the potential to increase the iPhone after the Apple share of smartphone sales in China fell 15 % last year from 19 % in 2023.
Without Alibaba, the Chinese iPhone users could download artificial intelligence apps, said Kramer. It would be a more difficult experience than rivals could offer.
“People will still buy their phones, but they will make it more difficult,” he said.