Apple is partnering with Alibaba to introduce artificial intelligence features for iPhone users in China. CNBC's Steve Kovach reports on what's at sake.

Beijing

The release of Open AI's ChatGPT has accelerated the development of artificial intelligence and warnings about its impact on society.

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Apple is collaborating with Alibaba to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) features to iPhone users in China. The effort is aimed at addressing falling iPhone sales in the Chinese market, where competition from companies like Huawei is intensifying. The lack of AI features in Apple's existing products has been identified as a potential reason for the slump in sales.

Recently, Alibaba chairman Joe Tsai confirmed the partnership during comments made in Dubai. While Apple has not provided a precise timeline for when Apple Intelligence will launch in China, developers in the region were informed of a session scheduled to help them make their apps compatible with the new system. The introduction of Chinese language support for Apple Intelligence is also anticipated.

The potential impact of this partnership on Apple's market performance is yet to be observed, but stock prices have already seen a positive response, with Apple up about 4% and Alibaba up about 13% for the week. Additionally, economic subsidies currently offered in China for smartphones priced at approximately $800 or less could also influence Apple's sales in the region. 



Apple teams up with Alibaba to help launch AI features

Meantime as Apple tries to turn around falling iPhone sales It's now teaming up with Alibaba to help it launch AI features in its products in China Steve Kovacs been looking into that this morning joins us this morning Steve a little tease here newest member of the family Yeah, that's right. But first let's talk about China because honestly that is way more important than what's going on with the iPhone SE So Joe sigh, he's the chairman of Alibaba. He made some comments this morning over in Dubai talking about Confirming rather those reports We got a Monday that Alibaba is now in partnership with Apple for Apple intelligence to launch it in their China now There are huge stakes going on in China guys. There's a renewed competition from Huawei There's no artificial intelligence product on Apple devices yet And then of course the tariff problem as well and then we learned two weeks ago today that China sales were down 11% in the quarter because of All those headwinds and Tim Cook told us that one of the reasons why China business has been struggling is because Apple intelligence is not Available there while competitors do have it available So let's talk about a timeline here because while we don't have an exact Announcement from Apple when Apple intelligence is going to launch in China We do have some hints here that we can read between the lines in March Apple told developers in China There's going to be a session that will help them kind of work through this Apple intelligence System and help them make their apps compatible with it And then in April Tim Cook told us Chinese language will launch in Apple intelligence Keep in mind this launch in English at first and they're expanding languages from there so if that does happen and if this partnership does go through it sounds like it's going to happen in April at the very earliest and That won't be reflected in Apple's reports until the June quarter at the very earliest in the meantime China is going through some subsidies right now as the economy falters there to help consumers Get spending again and that applies to smartphones that are worth about $800 or less and that would apply to some members of the iPhone family Tim Cook actually teased two weeks ago that this could be Some reason why China might turn around a little bit He hinted there'll be more to share there in the meantime because of all these reports Apple up about 4% week to date Alibaba up about 13% and then like you guys mentioned that Tim Cook iPhone SE tweet It looks like on February 19th. That would be Wednesday of next week That's the cheaper model of the iPhone. Like you said recycle some earlier parts, but again, not the hottest seller for Apple guys

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London

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Kyiv

Ukraine Invasion

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Council of the City of Sydney

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Hong Kong Island

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Santiago

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Minsk

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