Apple Teams Up with Alibaba to Bring Qwen AI to macOS 26.6

Apple recently published a support document on its official website titled "Using Qwen with Apple Intelligence on Mac," announcing that Apple Intelligence will partner with Alibaba's Qwen large language model. The service is available to users in mainland China running macOS 26.6 or later, provided their Apple ID country/region is set to mainland China and their Mac is a mainland China model. Users can enable the Qwen extension via the "Apple Intelligence & Siri" section in System Settings. Before using the feature, users must sign in to a Qwen account; those without an account can register or choose to sign in with Apple. The Qwen extension offers writing tools and Siri integration. The writing tools can generate and rewrite text within apps like Notes and Mail, while Siri—enhanced by the Qwen extension—can retrieve additional information, such as composing poetry or summarizing documents. Previously, China’s Cyberspace Administration included "Apple Intelligence" and six other on-device generative AI services in its filing registry. During Apple’s recent earnings call, CEO Tim Cook stated that Apple has launched the first set of "Apple Intelligence" features in China. Alibaba noted that Qwen will be integrated into Apple Intelligence as an AI capability, providing Chinese users of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS with functions including text and image understanding and content generation—all accessible directly on Apple devices without switching apps.