Apple designed its wonderful new (fast! private! thinking of the children!) Siri AI in a way that it knew contravened the EU Digital Markets Act. It expected the EU to let it break the law anyway, pinky-promising that it would make it compliant after 18 months. Understandably sceptical, after 2 years continued WebKit monopoly on iOS, EU said “no”. Not-Steve and Not-Steve-Either are both Very Sad (while still Thinking Of the Children).
Unfortunately, due to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Apple will not be able to ship Siri AI in the European Union with the release of iOS 27 and iPadOS 27. Over the past several months, EU regulators did not accept any of Apple’s proposed solutions to bring Siri AI to the EU while safely supporting other virtual assistants.
sobbed Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, lachrymosely. Dabbing his eyes and blowing his nose, Crying Craig blamed “EU regulators’ extreme interpretation of the DMA” which outrageously requires Apple to, er… obey legislation.
A dry-eyed spokesman for the European Commission said
The decision not to roll out Siri AI in the EU is Apple’s and Apple’s only. Absolutely nothing in the DMA prohibits Apple from introducing new products in the EU. What Apple is, however, not allowed to do is to close the market. It’s not for them to choose which AI tools our EU citizens get to use or not. That’s not an option.
Because it would mean that no AI agent other than Siri AI, by the way, powered by Google, would have an equal chance to be chosen by iPhone users. Apple was simply unable to develop interoperability solutions that meet essential EU privacy and security standards.
And more importantly, and I will finish with this, EU law is non-negotiable.
Doubtless, Apple is preparing to leave EU and take their toys home, as they threatened 9 months ago. As a Brexit Benefit, the UK will be a huge marketplace for contraband devices with hallucinating robots protecting your Comfort and Security. And (of course) Thinking Of The Children.
Our towns will be filled with grief-stricken Europeans begging “S’il vous plaĂ®t, vendez-moi juste un tĂ©lĂ©phone fruitĂ©?“, “Hast du so ein bescheuertes Handy, das mir 30 % meines Geldes abknöpft?“, “Alstublieft, Ă©Ă©n apparaatje waarmee ik aan de kinderen kan denken!” or “¡Dame fruta robot brillante, hombre!”
Whereas the EU is weepily excoriated by Apple press release, a footnote to a separate blogpost says
Siri AI and the other new Apple Intelligence features will not be available in China while Apple works through regulatory requirements.
But that’s to be expected; China is always the exception, even when it comes to Apple’s “deep sense of responsibility to make technology for people that respects their human rights [and] empowers them with useful tools and information”.
It’s almost as if Apple fights regulators if it thinks it can continue making monopoly profit that way, but kowtows to authoritarians elsewhere if that’s where the money is.