This partnership follows months of speculation about how Apple would navigate China’s AI restrictions while remaining competitive against domestic smartphone brands.

Apple CEO Tim Cook previously highlighted that markets with AI integration saw higher iPhone upgrade rates, but China remained an exception, leading to a rare sales dip. The lack of AI-powered features during a crucial sales period resulted in China being the only Apple market to experience a revenue decline. Industry analysts have suggested this shortfall underlines the urgency of AI integration in the region.

Why Apple chose Alibaba over rivals

Apple had initially explored a partnership with Baidu as its primary AI provider but reconsidered due to concerns over technical alignment and regulatory approval. The company then conducted evaluations based on AI model performance, compliance with Chinese regulations, and scalability.

The company ultimately chose Alibaba’s Qwen AI model, citing its advanced capabilities and seamless integration potential. Meanwhile, DeepSeek was reportedly eliminated from consideration due to limited infrastructure to support a large-scale deployment.

This new partnership marks a significant shift in Apple’s relationship with Alibaba, a company it has historically engaged with only indirectly. Apple accessories are available on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms, such as AliExpress and Taobao, but the company does not officially market its flagship products there. Additionally, Apple Pay competes with Alibaba’s Alipay in the financial sector.

The AI partnership represents a strategic move for both companies, aligning Apple with one of China’s top technology firms. The companies have already taken steps to ensure regulatory compliance, submitting AI models for review by Chinese internet authorities.

Regaining market share

As Apple prepares to unveil its fourth-generation iPhone SE, its partnership with Alibaba is expected to play a pivotal role in Apple’s China strategy. The budget-friendly iPhone SE has been a game-changer for Apple in China and India, the world’s two largest smartphone markets, significantly boosting iPhone sales.

The upcoming SE model will be central to Apple’s market recovery strategy, particularly as Chinese competitors continue to roll out AI-powered smartphones.

Beyond China, Apple is actively expanding its AI strategy on a global scale. The company is working with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Siri as part of its Apple Intelligence program in the United States. Reports also suggest that Apple is exploring additional AI partnerships, including discussions with Google regarding potential integrations of its Gemini AI model.

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The earnings announcement was the company’s first since Musk joined the Trump administration. The delivery numbers for the fourth quarter of 2025 did show some encouraging signs for Tesla. In the fourth quarter, the firm supplied 495,570 automobiles, 7 percent more than in the third quarter and roughly 2.28 percent more than during the same time in 2023.

The Robotaxi Era

On Wednesday, Musk shared a video on his social media platform, X, indicating that Tesla now lets completed vehicles drive themselves to a parking lot used for delivery prep. Musk explicitly confirmed plans to launch an in-house robo-taxi fleet in June in Austin, TX, and aims to enable unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) across the U.S. in the second half of 2025.

“While most of the earnings report was disappointing, filled with a lot of ‘fluff’ like this, and had some loftier goals in mind, we are a part of the ‘never bet against Musk’ crowd and a lot of what he said could come true at some point,” analyst Connor Mahoney at Mahoney Asset Management said. “It could just be a matter of when. The robo-taxi/FSD fleet is extremely ambitious for this year in our opinion, particularly when they use the term ‘unsupervised’.”

As the AI landscape grows more crowded and more competitive, leaders are beginning to emerge in different branches of the technology. In his remarks, Musk claimed that Tesla was going “balls to the wall for autonomy” last year. Making Tesla vehicles autonomous has been long touted but never fulfilled. Musk was motivated to lay off almost 10 percent of Tesla’s global workers because of this pledge, which has kept the company’s stock price at an all-time high.

UBS analyst Joseph Spaks believes that investors don’t particularly view Tesla (TSLA) as a carmaker anymore. “We can almost definitively say the market doesn’t treat TSLA like an auto company, but rather an AI company,” Spaks said in a company report.

Looking Back

The company’s operational income and its profitability on an adjusted basis—$2.06 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023—presented a clearer financial success. Tesla reported $25.2 billion in sales for the third quarter of 2024 and a $2.2 billion profit—essentially flat compared to the same quarter in 2023. In the fourth quarter of 2023, Tesla recorded a net income (on a GAAP basis) of $7.9 billion, and the company’s sales were $25.17 billion, year over year. A one-time non-cash tax advantage of $5.9 billion for the release of valuation allowance on specific deferred tax assets was included in this disproportionately large amount.

Read our guide to investing in AI to learn more about the potential benefits, risks, and everything else you need to know.

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“We found a job that we loved,” McCartney said, “but it also paid the bills.” He cautioned that removing protections could disincentivize creativity and lead to a “loss of creativity.”

Worries About the “Wild West” of AI and Copyright

The suggested modifications intend to provide AI developers enhanced access to online resources for text and data mining, a method through which generative AI systems acquire knowledge from extensive datasets to generate new content. The government intends to provide creators with a “rights reservation” choice to exclude their content from being used in AI training.

Nevertheless, detractors claim this system imposes an unreasonable responsibility on individual creators to track and safeguard their work online. McCartney cautioned that the suggestions could lead to a “Wild West” scenario where copyright laws are ignored.

“You have young men and women emerging who create a beautiful song, yet they don’t possess it,” he said. “Anyone who desires can simply tear it off.”

Music Industry Raises Concern

The music industry has aligned with McCartney in denouncing the proposals, as U.K. Music chief executive Tom Kiehl labeled them a “reckless gamble against the creative industry.” He observed that the music industry adds more than $120 billion annually to the economy, and loosening copyright protections could jeopardize this success.

Kiehl also criticized the opt-out approach, stating that it offers little reassurance to creators.

“There is no evidence that creatives can effectively ‘opt-out’ of their work being trained by AI systems,” he said, adding that an opt-in system would provide a more equitable solution. This alternative will be debated in the House of Lords by crossbench peer Baroness Kidron.

“AI can do lots of great things,” McCartney said, acknowledging AI’s potential and citing its role in creating the song Now and Then. “We took an old cassette of John’s and cleaned his voice up so it sounded like it had just been recorded yesterday. So it has its uses. But it shouldn’t rip creative people off.”

Learn more about how AI can be used for voice generation and the range of applications that opens up.

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Filed in California’s federal court on Alessandro De La Torre’s behalf, the lawsuit alleged that InMail messages were fed to neural networks based on LinkedIn’s disclosure last year. The class-action lawsuit also claimed that LinkedIn concealed critical facts and attempted to cover its tracks after violating users’ privacy rights.

Privacy Violation

“In Section 3.2 of the LinkedIn Subscription Agreement (LSA), LinkedIn promises not to disclose its Premium customers’ confidential information to third parties,” the complaint noted, alleging a violation of the United States Stored Communications Act, breach of contract, and unfair competition under California law. However, a LinkedIn spokesperson told BBC News that the claims have no merit.

“This setting controls the training of generative AI models used to create content,” the company said. “When this setting is on LinkedIn, its affiliates may use the personal data and content you create on LinkedIn for that purpose.”

LinkedIn exempted customers in Canada, the E.U., the E.E.A., the U.K., Switzerland, Hong Kong, or Mainland China from having their LinkedIn data used “to train content-generating AI models.” Customers in the United States, where there’s still no federal privacy law, were offered a setting, enabled by default, titled “Data for Generative AI Improvement.”

LinkedIn acknowledges that it uses personal data and creative content for AI training and will share that data with third parties for model training. But the lawsuit raises the question of whether LinkedIn has included the contents of private InMail messages available to paying customers in the personal data disclosed.

The Puzzle

However, the complaint did not state that the plaintiffs have evidence of the shared InMail contents. Rather, the legal filing appears to assume InMail messages were included in AI training data based on LinkedIn’s alleged attempts to cover its tracks through a series of unannounced policy language changes, as well as the company’s failure to declare that it never accessed InMail contents for training publicly. The plaintiff seeks $1,000 in damages and possibly more relief as compensation.

Microsoft is one of the biggest investors and developers in the AI space, but it’s not the only one—see the others on our list of the top AI companies to better understand who is defining this dynamic technology.

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A recent study reveals that 91 percent of Svalbard’s glaciers are shrinking, with a total area loss exceeding 500 square miles since 1985. The research also shows that over half of these glaciers exhibit noticeable seasonal patterns, fracturing and flowing into nearby seas. Dr. Tian Li, senior research associate in the Glaciology Centre at the University of Bristol, said “The scale of glacier retreats over the past few decades is astonishing.”

Root of the Problem

Experts say that a weather pattern called “blocking” caused these conditions. This pattern stops normal airflow and can lead to very high temperatures in some parts of the Arctic. Iceberg calving—large ice chunks breaking off and plunging into the ocean—is the main process by which these glaciers lose mass when they meet the sea. Researchers typically look at satellite pictures and manually collect the data to map the glacier calving front, which is the line where the ice enters the ocean.

However, this method requires maximum time and effort, isn’t very efficient, and can vary depending on who analyzes the images. Using technologies like artificial intelligence to rapidly identify glacier patterns across wide regions is a novel approach to resolving this issue. From 1985 to 2023, millions of satellite photos of 149 marine-terminating glaciers were analyzed using AI, enabling a hitherto unheard-of large-scale analysis of glacier retreats.

According to the research, 91 percent of Svalbard’s marine-terminating glaciers have been considerably receding. Since 1985, more than 800 km² of glacier mass has been lost, which is more than the area of New York City. This amounts to an annual loss of 24 km², which is over twice the size of London’s Heathrow Airport.

A Global Threat

In addition to melting glaciers, this warming alters patterns of precipitation and snowfall, causing significant changes in the Arctic environment. Rainfall and snowfall have significantly increased in recent years in locations such as Svalbard. Increased harsh weather will cause glaciers to melt more quickly, harming marine life and ecosystems. If cold-water habitats disappear, food chains may be disrupted and animals may have to relocate. Marine life, including fish, depends on stable ice to survive, but as glaciers continue to melt rapidly, their existence is in jeopardy.

As AI is deployed in an increasingly wide range of use cases, more people in the industry are beginning to investigate possible applications of AI for climate change. At the same time, more attention is being paid to finding ways to mitigate the environmental impact of AI and the data centers that power it. Due to its unusually high energy consumption for training and operation, AI also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, waste, water shortages, and other environmental issues. 

Learn more about the opportunities and challenges around AI and climate change.

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The Babel Fish from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy—a fish that can efficiently speak various languages used for translations—may finally be a reality.

Addressing Data Scarcity in Machine Translation

The development of SEAMLESSM4T builds on Meta’s previous work in speech-to-speech translation and the No Language Left Behind project, which aimed to provide text-to-text translation for approximately 200 languages. However, a recurring problem in machine translation is the lack of training data for languages that are not as widely spoken. While training data for important languages like English is plentiful, it is still scarce for many others, especially those with little online visibility.

According to Cornell University computer scientist Allison Koenecke, this data inequality has impeded the extension of machine translation capabilities to less common languages. Although the precise causes of this enhancement are yet unknown, researchers have discovered that multilingualization improves translation systems’ performance even for languages with little training data.

A Comprehensive Translation System

To develop SEAMLESSM4T, Meta’s team gathered millions of hours of audio recordings from reputable sources like the United Nations archives and the internet. These audio recordings served as a strong training dataset, as did transcripts and human-generated translations. The algorithm successfully paired almost half a million hours of audio fragments with corresponding text in several languages.

“Meta has done a great job having a breadth of different things they support, like text-to-speech, speech-to-text, even automatic speech recognition,” said Chetan Jaiswal, a Quinnipiac University professor of computer science who was not involved in the research. “The mere number of languages they are supporting is a tremendous achievement.”

Meta, headquartered in Menlo Park, California, offers SEAMLESSM4T as an open-source tool, allowing researchers worldwide to build upon its framework. This follows the company’s successful release of its LLaMA large language model, which is widely adopted by developers globally. The SEAMLESSM4T system marks a significant advancement in multilingual communication and can potentially change how people interact across language barriers.

Learn more about other fascinating use cases for artificial intelligence across different industries.

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“2025 is when agents will work,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said at the company’s 2024 Development Day.

AI Agents on the Rise

The introduction of AI agents marks a significant advancement from current systems that rely on step-by-step prompting. It represents a major step toward Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)— intelligence that matches or surpasses human capabilities.

The introduction of ChatGPT’s capabilities for routine tasks like sending reminders or checking the weather is a significant advancement in OpenAI’s mission to develop sophisticated AI. According to an internal document reported on by Bloomberg, OpenAI has five stages of artificial intelligence, with level three being “agents”—AI systems that can act independently—and eventually, “organizations,” which refers to AI that can handle the responsibilities of a full organization.

Recent debates over the limits of AI models’ development raise the possibility that it will take longer to reach AGI than Altman has suggested.

“Tasks” at Work

ChatGPT’s Tasks is available from the chatbot’s dropdown menu. ChatGPT will automatically create a task when you send it a message in this setting. The drop-down menu on your profile allows you to manage tasks. You have the option to accept or reject jobs that ChatGPT suggests. If you use the ChatGPT mobile app, Task alerts will show on your phone, browser, or in the desktop client on Macs.

In addition to generating tasks for weather reports and news updates, OpenAI claims that users can also set reminders for things like “My kids appreciate knock-knock jokes” or “Send me daily affirmations at 7 a.m.”

The Tasks feature will roll out this week to Plus, Team, and Pro users worldwide, across all platforms—web browser, desktop app for Macs, and mobile app—with the task manager initially available only on the web.

Read our comprehensive ChatGPT review to learn more about the features that make this popular tool stand out among a crowded field of AI chatbots.

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In June, Citi warned that AI is likely to displace more jobs across the banking industry than in any other sector, noting that about 54 percent of banking jobs have a high potential to be automated. While some firms acknowledged AI will replace certain roles, many said the shift will primarily result in roles being changed by technology rather than replaced altogether. Teresa Heitsenrether, who oversees JPMorgan’s AI efforts, noted that the bank’s adoption of generative AI has augmented jobs.

AI Adoption Driving Layoffs

AI adoption is expected to bring significant cost savings and increased profitability to the banking industry. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, banks could see pretax profits by 2027 that are 12 to 17 percent higher than they would otherwise have been, adding as much as $180 billion to their combined bottom line.

Eight in 10 respondents expect generative AI to increase productivity and revenue generation by at least five percent in the next three to five years. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has highlighted the potential of AI to improve quality of life, suggesting that while some positions may be eliminated, technology will transform work patterns and job functions.

The Future of Work

There is hope in Jamie Dimon’s view of the future of work, where technology allows people to work fewer hours and improves their quality of life. Even if AI eliminates some jobs, he told Bloomberg Television in 2023, it will significantly improve workers’ quality of life.

“Your children are going to live to 100 years and not have cancer because of technology,” Dimon said. “They will likely work three and a half days a week.”  But for individuals who lose their jobs because of AI, the situation can be more difficult.

In the technology sector, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has indicated that AI could soon replace mid-level software engineers. In a recent interview, Zuckerberg noted that, by 2025, AI could function as a mid-level engineer capable of writing code, potentially automating roles that currently command mid-six-figure salaries. In a wide-ranging interview on the Joe Rogan Experience, Zuckerberg said that the AI replacement strategy might be an expensive endeavor but the long-term potential of replacing these mid-level engineers is too big to pass up.

Interested in a career in AI? Read our AI jobs salary report  to see what types of roles are available and how they pay.

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Internal Ethics Debate Preceded Decision

According to internal Meta messages cited in the petition, the company’s AI leadership team had expressed concerns about the use of LibGen and warned that integrating it into the model’s training data could harm Meta’s standing with authorities. The messages show an internal company struggle with the ethical and practical consequences of accessing the LibGen dataset from a Meta computer, despite the team’s eagerness to proceed with the data.

The concept of “torrenting,” the peer-to-peer file-sharing technique LibGen uses to increase the volume of content it illegally copies, was specifically pointed out in one message as a source of unease. However, a memo in the documents allegedly referring to Mark Zuckerberg by his initials noted that Meta’s AI team “has been cleared to employ LibGen.”

Complaint Still Faces Legal Challenges

Though the original complaint was filed in 2023, the incident is back in the news after U.S. district judge Vince Chhabria permitted the authors to file an amended complaint last week, reviving their claims of copyright infringement and adding a new computer fraud allegation. Although he initially dismissed the claims, the new evidence might be sufficient to turn the case around.

“Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, approved Meta’s use of the LibGen dataset notwithstanding concerns within Meta’s AI executive team (and others at Meta) that LibGen is ‘a dataset we know to be pirated,’” lawyers for the plaintiffs confirmed, but requests for comments from Meta went unanswered.

The use of copyrighted resources to train AI models has generated controversy in the tech and creative sectors, with creators claiming that unlawful use of their work jeopardizes their revenue and intellectual property. Last year a federal court in New York ordered LibGen’s anonymous operators to pay $30 million in damages for copyright infringement. The case is part of a larger, ongoing conversation about the role of ethics in AI.

Read our guide to the ethical challenges facing generative AI tools like ChatGPT to learn more about the issues at stake.

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Media Organizations Want Swift Action

The argument escalated when the AI tool falsely claimed that BBC News had published stories regarding tennis player Rafael Nadal’s coming out as gay and a premature announcement of a darts championship winner. In both cases, the claims were entirely false.

The BBC filed a formal complaint after AI-generated alerts falsely claimed that Luigi Mangione, an American facing murder charges in the death of the UnitedHealth Care CEO, committed suicide—an incident that never occurred. In November, the AI also wrongly referenced The New York Times as reporting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s detention. The pattern of distortion has prompted increased calls for Apple to rectify the serious weaknesses in its AI platform.

Both the BBC and The New York Times stressed the importance of reliable news reporting, particularly when their reputable brands are at stake. A BBC spokeswoman demanded that Apple make quick fixes, warning that such errors might significantly erode public confidence.

Industry Leaders Demand Suspension

Media advocates, including Reporters Without Borders, have joined the increasing call for Apple to suspend use of the AI tool, citing the unprecedented damage it might do to public trust. Alan Rusbridger, former editor of The Guardian, criticized the tool on BBC Radio 4, warning about unchecked misinformation spread by AI and other artificial intelligence risks.

Rusbridger stressed that deploying this technology should be limited to regulated environments to avoid the dissemination of false information to the public. In response, Apple issued a statement acknowledging the issues and pledging to release updates to make it clear that the summaries are AI-generated. A company representative reassured users that improvements are on the way and encouraged them to report any problematic notifications.

“Apple’s intelligence features are currently in beta, and we are continually improving them according to user feedback,” the statement clarified. “A software update coming in the next few weeks will clarify when the displayed text is a summary from Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to inform us if they notice an unusual notification summary.”

Currently, the alerts prominently display the app logos of news organizations like BBC News and The New York Times, giving the impression that they are directly from these sources. It doesn’t, however, specify anywhere that the information comes from Apple’s AI instead of the news outlet itself.

Explore our list of the top companies defining the field of AI and discovering new applications for the technology across a wide range of industries.

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