Alibaba has been celebrating beating Baidu to a contract with Apple, for AI-based features for iPhones, equivalent to Apple Intelligence in other countries, declaring it a major win. Yet, Apple is also collaborating with Baidu over AI enhancement for internet search and cloud services. Alibaba Chairman Joe Tsai confirmed the Apple deal last week at the World Government Summit in Dubai. He commented, “they talked to a number of companies in China. In the end, they chose to do business with us.” He was alluding particularly to Baidu, which was very much in the frame for the contract, as it was already working with Apple on upgrades to the Siri digital assistant for the Chinese market. But Alibaba’s AI star has…