Nearly half of Apple’s keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month was dedicated to AI features, and how the company will incorporate them into the upcoming iOS 18 and iPadOS 18. And if you’re in the EU, none of that matters, because Apple has decided not to bring the Apple Intelligence (get it? AI!) feature set to iPhones and iPads in the EU.
This is due to “uncertainties” about the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which came into force in March and has already forced Apple to make a number of concessions. Executive Vice-President and Competition Commissioner for Europe Fit for the Digital Age (yes, that’s really her full title) Margrethe Vestager had some choice words for a US corporation regarding its refusal to launch its AI facilities in the EU. Here’s what she said:
So Apple has said that they will not launch their new enabling features in an IRS environment, and they say they will not do that because of the obligations that they have in Europe. And the obligations that they have in Europe are to remain open to competition, which is the short version of DMA. And I find that very interesting, that they say we will now deploy AI where we are not obligated to enable competition. I think that is the most surprising, open declaration that they are 100% aware that this is another way to disable competition, where they already have a dominant presence.
This was an answer given in a Q&A session at Forum Europa, so it’s not an official press release or anything like that, but Vestager has long been the most outspoken EC official on all matters related to big US companies and their behaviour towards the EU market, so it’s not really that big of a deal. United Nations-Not even official.
No Zenmoji for you, EU!
Essentially, in Vestager’s own words, by blocking AI features Apple is admitting that the implementation of these features would be deemed anti-competitive by the EC.
That’s one way of saying it, but it’s not really helpful – that’s what Vestager is saying. Apple but the relevant point here is that election Commission She thinks about the anti-competitive spirit, or lack thereof, and she doesn’t really say anything about it.
Still, we may never know – if Apple never brings the Apple Intelligence Suite to the EU, there will never be an EU investigation, and thus we will never know how anti-competitive they are or not.
Of course, Apple could delay the launch of Apple Intelligence in the EU – Google also took a long time to bring Gemini to the EU, but it finally did. And if we take another look at Apple’s statement on the matter, it seems like it wants to work out a solution together with the EU:
Two weeks ago, Apple introduced hundreds of new features that we are excited to bring to our users around the world. We are highly motivated to make these technologies accessible to all users. However, due to regulatory uncertainties brought about by the Digital Markets Act (DMA), we do not believe we will be able to introduce three of these features – iPhone mirroring, SharePlay screen sharing enhancements, and Apple Intelligence – to our EU users this year. In particular, we are concerned that the DMA’s interoperability requirements may force us to compromise the integrity of our products which could put user privacy and data security at risk. We are committed to working with the European Commission in an effort to find a solution that will enable us to deliver these features to our EU customers without compromising their security.
We’ll have to wait and see how this all plays out, but for now, if you have an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max and you’re in the EU, don’t expect to be playing with Apple’s AI in the near future.