Heavily censored Apple Intelligence expected in China with iOS 18.6 release next month

A heavily censored Apple Intelligence is finally expected to arrive in China with Apple’s release of iOS 18.6 in June.

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For several months, the company has been working on ways to bring Apple Intelligence to China, which is no easy thing. Given the laws in the region, Apple has had to partner with a local provider that could serve as a de facto censorship engine — with the ability to modify Apple’s AI models on local devices at the behest of the Chinese government. I first reported on the plan several months ago, when the company was aiming to release it as part of the iOS 18.5 operating system around the middle of this year.

But several iOS 18.5 beta versions have now come and gone, and there are no signs that Apple Intelligence is ready to launch in China. That’s making it more likely that iOS 18.6 marks the debut of the software in China. That release is likely to come after Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

Apple will partner with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. for the censorship engine. Separately, it will integrate Baidu Inc.’s software with Siri and Visual Intelligence. That means Baidu will fill the role of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google search in China.

Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News

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