Apple’s Alibaba AI deal is unlikely to be a silver bullet for its China woes

• Apple finally has an AI partner in China: Alibaba.
• Alibaba will integrate its AI into iPhones in China, its chairman, Joe Tsai, said on Thursday.
• Apple faces a tough task to turn around sliding smartphone sales in China that may go deeper than AI.

It looks like Apple has finally found a partner to bring its full vision of generative AI to China: Jack Ma’s Alibaba.

Apple will be hoping the partnership, confirmed Thursday by Alibaba’s chairman Joe Tsai, drives…