Apple’s accidental AI feature roll-out in China risks regulatory backlash, expert says

he short-lived roll-out comes amid nearly two years of anticipation in China, where Apple Intelligence has yet to launch despite its release in major markets.

Photo: Shutterstock Apple’s accidental roll-out on Tuesday of its highly anticipated Apple Intelligence feature in mainland China – which has yet to receive regulatory approval – before swiftly pulling it could raise the ire of regulators and expose the US tech giant to potential penalties, an industry expert warned.

The brief release could have violated local rules on artificial intelligence security evaluations, algorithm filings and data protection, according to You Yunting, a Shanghai-based intellectual property lawyer.

Even though the company immediately pulled the release, the fact that Apple “pushed the feature to Chinese users before completing security evaluation and algorithm filing could be deemed as providing service without fulfilling legal compliance obligations, subjecting it to the risk of administrative penalties”, You said.

The company stunned China users in the early hours of Tuesday by making the long-overdue feature update – a package of AI-powered tools to enhance and personalise user experience across Apple devices – available to select users, according to local user accounts.

Many of them were able to download the feature – dubbed Apple Intelligence and Siri while still carrying a beta label – and use the tools on their handsets, according to social media posts.

Apple’s accidental roll-out of its Apple Intelligence feature in mainland China risks raising the ire of regulators.

Photo: Shutterstock Apple described the suite as a “personal intelligence system” integrated into iPhone, apps and Siri, offering functions such as real-time translation, photo editing and writing tools and utilities to create personalised emojis and images.

The company appeared to have pulled the update hours after China users scrambled to download it.

South China Morning Post reporters were unable to retrieve the feature on Tuesday morning.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The short-lived roll-out comes amid nearly two years of anticipation in China, where Apple Intelligence has yet to launch despite its release in major markets, including the US in 2024 and Europe in 2025.

Part of Apple Intelligence’s core capabilities, including writing and image tools, are already available in Hong Kong.

While Apple collaborates with Google and OpenAI to deliver some AI capabi

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