Apple and Alibaba's AI Deal Raising Eyebrows in DC

So, you know how Apple and Alibaba are maybe gonna team up to put Alibaba's AI on iPhones in China? Well, apparently folks in the White House and Congress are kinda concerned about it. Yeah, The New York Times reported on it recently.

The big worry, according to some people who know what's going on, is that this deal could help Alibaba get even better at artificial intelligence. Also, it might make those Chinese chatbots with all their censorship stuff more popular. And hey, it could also make Apple more tied up in China's rules about what you can and can't say and sharing your info. Sounds like a whole thing, right?

Interestingly, neither Apple nor Alibaba said anything right away when Reuters asked them about it. But back in February, Alibaba did say something about working with Apple on AI stuff for iPhones over there.

For Alibaba, this could be a pretty big deal in the AI world in China. It's super competitive with companies like DeepSeek doing cool stuff for way less money than companies in the West. So, this partnership would be a pretty big win for them. Reuters said they couldn't totally confirm what the NYT report said yet, but it's definitely something to keep an eye on, don't you think?