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Trump admin and Congress raise concerns about Apple-Alibaba deal in China

MacDailyNews

May 19

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Today’s release of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 brings new features to Apple Intelligence on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. — Apple Intelligence imagery on iPhone, Mac, and iPad.

In recent months, the Trump administrations and congressional officials have been scrutinizing Apple’s plan to strike a deal with Alibaba to make the Chinese company’s A.I. part of Apple Intelligence in China, Th eNew Your Times reports citing “three people familiar with the deliberations.”

Tripp Mickle for The New York Times:
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They are concerned that the deal would help a Chinese company improve its artificial intelligence abilities, broaden the reach of Chinese chatbots with censorship limits and deepen Apple’s exposure to Beijing laws over censorship and data sharing.
The scrutiny is the latest example of the challenges that Apple has run into as it tries to sustain its businesses in the United States and China at a time of rising geopolitical tensions…
Walking away from an Alibaba deal would have far graver consequences for Apple’s business in China, which accounts for almost a fifth of the company’s sales. The partnership with the Chinese tech company is critical to bringing A.I. features to iPhones in one of the world’s most highly regulated and competitive markets. Without the Alibaba partnership, iPhones could fall behind smartphones from Chinese rivals like Huawei and Xiaomi.
Washington’s concern about the deal has been heightened by a deepening conviction that A.I. will become a critical military tool… There is concern in Washington that an Apple deal with Alibaba would set a problematic precedent. U.S. companies could help Chinese A.I. providers reach more 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 could then use those improvements to help China’s military.

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MacDailyNews Take: Apple Intelligence in China is a can of worms and, even if it does eventually appear, it’ll be heavily censored.

As we wrote last November, “Apple Intelligence in China will be highly censored and rather limited; it will only spit back the approved narratives of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. — Potter Stewart

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