Apple's Alibaba AI controversy; Meta delays release of Behemoth LLM; Trump rescinds Biden's AI Diffusion Rule
Apple's Alibaba AI controversy
Apple is reportedly facing scrutiny from the U.S. White House and senior executives in the government over a deal for Apple to support Chinese tech giant Alibaba's AI offerings in iPhones that are sold in China, reported The New York Times. While the Chinese administration is reluctant to let its users access U.S. chatbots, the U.S. government is concerned that Apple will have to comply with Chinese censorship orders and data sharing laws when it enters into an agreement with Alibaba. Apple is also facing pressure to move iPhone manufacturing out of China and to the U.S., with U.S. President Donald Trump also criticising Apple's plans to manufacture iPhones in India. Apart from this, Apple's rollout of its own AI-enhanced Siri has been fraught with delays and tension, with iPhone buyers expressing their anger over the unfulfilled promises.
Alibaba confirmed a partnership with Apple back in February, and the two tech giants have not yet responded to the report in a formal capacity. The deal with Apple is especially significant for Alibaba, since it looks to gain an advantage as firms such as DeepSeek and Baidu work on releasing their own AI chatbots and large language models.
Meta delays release of Behemoth LLM
Meta is delaying the planned release of its Behemoth large language model as experts working on the offering are not certain whether it was improved enough to warrant a formal release to the public, reported The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources. Llama 4 Behemoth, which was reportedly scheduled to release in April in time for the LlamaCon AI conference, was instead pushed to June, and is now expected in the fall or even later, according to the outlet. Meta is yet to officially confirm or deny the reports.
Meta had praised Behemoth's power and capacity, claiming that it is 'one of the smartest LLMs in the world.' However, Meta did go on to release the Llama 4 Scout and Llama 4 Maverick AI models, and also announced a Meta AI app. As Big Tech companies in the U.S. compete against each other and race to release new models with improved knowledge bases and advanced coding, mathematical, or natural language capabilities, customers have often questioned if companies are making enough substantial enhancements before announcing their next AI product launch.
Trump rescinds Biden's AI Diffusion Rule
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) has formally rescinded the Biden administration's 'Artificial Intelligence Diffusion Rule,' with the decision coming during a tense trading dispute between the U.S. and China over tariffs. The 'Artificial Intelligence Diffusion Rule' operated on the basis of a tier-system that classified how much access to American AI technology both allies and hostile states could receive, but it was criticised for implementing widespread restrictions on exporting U.S.-made AI chips. The Trump government, meanwhile, will likely go for a more case-by-case approach to ensure that ally states are able to benefit from American AI technology while hostile countries will mostly be cut out.
Furthermore, the DOC warned that using Huawei's Ascend AI chips anywhere globally violates U.S. export rules. U.S. technologists and lawmakers are working together in order to track the possible smuggling of U.S.-manufactured AI chips into China, where they fear the chips are being used to develop competing AI models for companies such as Baidu, DeepSeek, and Alibaba.
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