Apple removes over a hundred ChatGPT-like apps in China as tighter regulations set to take effect
- The apps were all pulled off the shelves from China’s iOS app store on Tuesday
- The move comes as enthusiasm for generative AI remains high in China while Beijing seeks to ramp up scrutiny of the sector
Apple has removed more than a hundred apps offering ChatGPT-like services from its China store, as a regulation on generative artificial intelligence (AI) is set to take effect in the country in two weeks.
Spark reappeared in China’s iOS app store on Wednesday morning, after iFlytek said on an investor relations platform that the app had gone through an update.
Among the other apps pulled was the popular ChatGAi Plus, which provides chatbot, AI translation and writing services and was ranked 9th on the China iOS app store’s paid app chart before being removed on Tuesday afternoon, Qimai records show.
In a notification to developers, Apple said that it had removed the apps “because they include content that is illegal in China”, citing tighter regulations on deep synthesis technologies and generative AI, according to a screenshot shared by Zhenlu Zuo, a developer behind one of the removed AI apps OpenCat, on X - which was formerly called Twitter.
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Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last month, China issued the world’s earliest and most detailed regulation on generative AI models, drawn up jointly by seven Chinese regulators including the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) and the MIIT.
Many providers will also need to pass a security assessment with the CAC before serving the public, according to the new rules, which also require companies to avoid any discrimination based upon ethnicity, faith, country, region, gender, age, occupation and health, in terms of the design of algorithms and the selection of training data.
Chinese companies are racing to produce their own answers to Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT amid an investment frenzy. During the first half of this year, 22 generative AI start-ups in China received funding, the largest number in the world, AI-focused research firm Zhidongxi said in a report last month. The US was close behind with 21, though American start-ups are better funded than their Chinese peers.
But so far no domestic firm has rolled out a major, public facing ChatGPT-style service in China.
Some of the most high-profile endeavours by China’s Big Tech firms, including Baidu’s Earnie Bot and Alibaba Group Holding’s Tongyi Qianwen, are either still in trial mode or targeting enterprises only. Ernie Bot is still on Chinese app stores and can be downloaded by any user who has an invitation code to use it.
Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.