At the recent developer conference, Apple talked about interesting innovations in its AI tools. There’s just one problem: European Union competition laws could make it difficult to implement them in the EU. In a nutshell: Apple won’t bring its AI to Europe. At least for now.
The key lies in the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which, among other things, regulates the European Union’s competition rules and requires companies to ensure that rival products and services can work with their devices. An antitrust measure that has also affected Meta (WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram) and Microsoft. According to Apple, the DMA requires third-party companies to interoperate with its services could “force” compromises on privacy and security.
“Two weeks ago,” explains Fred Sainz, Apple’s head of communications, “our company introduced hundreds of new features that we are excited to offer to our users around the world. We are very motivated to make these technologies accessible to all users. However, due to the regulatory uncertainties caused by the DMA, We don’t think we can implement three of these features. (iPhone Mirroring, SharePlay screen-sharing enhancements, and Apple Intelligence) in the EU this year. Specifically, we are concerned that the DMA’s interoperability requirements could require us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that put user privacy and data security at risk.”
EU spokesman Thomas Regnier responded by saying that “The EU is an attractive market with 450 million potential users and has always been open to any company that wants to provide services in the European internal market. Companies can offer their services in Europe, as long as they comply with our rules aimed at ensuring fair competition”.
It’s not clear what specifically is causing the concerns, but Apple Intelligence alone covers Siri updates, Genmoji, notification management, performing scheduled actions across different apps, as well as generating text and summaries. So while the functions will be released in the US in the fall, they would not arrive in Europe until 2025.
Is it really that worrying? When the next version of Apple’s mobile operating system is released later this year, the support features will also be They will be able to review emails, text messages and photos on a phone to find specific information based on user input, thereby further fueling Apple’s AI capabilities.
Despite this, Apple has made sure to repeatedly promise that its new AI features will be private. In early June, CEO Tim Cook promised that its features would be “private.”They would be based on your personal context such as your routine, your relationships, your communications and more”.