Apple publishes Mac guide to link Alibaba Qwen AI with Siri in mainland China

Apple has published a guide explaining how eligible Mac users in mainland China can connect Alibaba's Qwen artificial-intelligence service to Siri and Writing Tools, Reuters reported from Beijing on Aug 8. The Mac-specific arrangement could help Apple compete in China's AI PC market, where Reuters said it has been losing share as domestic makers promote local AI features. Omdia figures cited by Reuters put Mac shipments in mainland China down 9% year on year in the first quarter to about 800,000 units, or 9% of the PC market, versus Lenovo's 31% and Huawei's 16%. Users who opt in can use Qwen through Siri for more detailed responses, including analysis of photos and documents, and Writing Tools can draw on the service to create text or images from a description. Alibaba cannot use those materials to train or improve its models, according to the guide. Alibaba has said Qwen will be incorporated into Apple Intelligence across iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro software in China, though the newly published guide covers Macs only. Alibaba this week released Qwen3.8-Max, a 2.4-trillion-parameter model; Apple's guide does not identify which Qwen model powers the Mac extension.