Apple has reportedly trained a large language model specifically for the Chinese market with support from Alibaba, according to people familiar with the effort. The reported model would sit alongside Apple’s earlier plan to use Alibaba’s Qwen for Apple Intelligence features in China.

Apple has not announced a launch timetable for the reported model. The earlier Qwen arrangement came into view after Apple briefly published a support guide describing how Mac users in mainland China could connect Qwen to Siri and Writing Tools before the guide was removed. [MacRumors]