Apple Launches China AI Features in December Without Siri AI

Apple will debut its first AI features in mainland China in December through an iOS 27.3 update, nearly two years after the US rollout, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported. The launch will not include the rebuilt Siri AI, and Apple executives are reportedly not optimistic about Siri AI reaching China in the near term.

The China version runs on a model Apple trained itself with help from Alibaba, with the Chinese AI company's Qwen also incorporated. 9to5Mac notes that the platform ships with guardrails developed with Alibaba "including a filter that allows the government to approve ongoing updates to the AI models." The Cyberspace Administration of China registered Apple's generative AI service in July, clearing the regulatory path. Apple is reported to be the first foreign company approved to offer a proprietary AI model in China.

What ships is the original 2024 feature set: Genmoji, notification summaries, writing tools, and object removal from photos. Image Playground, the upgraded version of Genmoji, visual intelligence and photo expansion are absent, and text-generation features will be limited inside some apps.

The timeline has slipped repeatedly. Apple initially expected the launch in May 2025, then pushed to the end of 2025, then spring 2026 while it waited on Beijing's approval process. The December rollout caps a two-year gap with the US version — a bifurcation that is becoming a running theme in Apple's AI product line, following last week's HomeView decision to skip the EU over Siri AI restrictions.