ChatGPT is banned in China

Jun 21, 2024

2 min read

3

10

A screenshot of Craig Federighi introducing Apple's partnership with ChatGPT during WWDC24, overlaid with a red X and with text "NOT IN CHINA" under screenshot — Source: Me

Yep. Way too far for regulating the AI industry before everybody else. Some people use it all the time, you know! UNFAIR!!! Anyway, what does this have to do with Apple? Isn't Apple competing against ChatGPT? Wait, why are you even asking that question? You know that Apple announced a partnership with OpenAI during WWDC24 so that Siri queries can go to ChatGPT if needed, right???

Anyway, this is not new: it's been banned since August (specifically, China started an approval system for AI, and ChatGPT hasn't been approved due to nationalism), so I'm just stating facts here. This is especially bad for Apple because Apple is already facing downward sales (10% downward sales in the first quarter of 2024 according to IDC, I mean, due to national competition and sentiment) there (China is Apple's second-largest market, so these numbers do more impact than you may think). Because of this, Apple is trying to take advantage of Chinese nationalism to prune a Chinese company in (we still have time until the first betas of the new Siri and in general Apple Intelligence come out this fall), but no deals have been struck as of yet (but they probably will, according to Jeff Fieldhack at Counterpoint, especially when you have precedent from Apple's archrival Samsung). That's bad, because even more Chinese will gravitate away from the iPhone due to (still) the lack of AI in such expensive iPhones.

China is not the only one who isn't on the ChatGPT bandwagon: the EU doesn't seem to be either. The DMA makes it uncertain if the EU will allow Apple Intelligence as a whole, so Apple is backing away from the EU and saying that they "do not believe that we will be able to roll out" the feature. Three more iOS 18 features won't be featured in the EU as well: the new SharePlay Screen Sharing features (screen drawing and remote control) and iPhone Mirroring (if you don't remember, that's a feature so that you can see and use your iPhone on your Mac). Apple is working with the European Commission for a solution to the problem, though.

By Leo