Apple and the European Union are blaming each other for delaying a rollout of the iPhone maker’s long awaited Siri AI app to European users.
A spokesman for the 27-nation EU’s executive arm on Tuesday disputed Apple’s explanation for why the company can't include European users when the app launches later this year.
“We indeed need to set the record straight,” European Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said. “The decision not to roll out Siri AI in the EU
is Apple’s and Apple’s only because absolutely nothing in the DMA prohibits Apple from introducing new products in the EU."
Regnier was referring to the Digital Markets Act, a tough EU rule book that aims to stop Big Tech "gatekeepers" from locking out rivals.
Apple had blamed the DMA after unveiling its upgraded artificial intelligence assistant a day earlier at its annual developers conference. It said in a statement Monday that it wouldn't be available for iPhone and iPad users in the EU, and did not provide any timetable.
The DMA requires the biggest tech platforms to give access to rivals on equal terms. But Apple complained that under Brussels' “extreme interpretation” of the rule book, the company would have to give any virtual assistant “direct access" to user data without “essential protections." Apple said it designed a solution and a plan to roll it out gradually over 18 months, but the commission rejected its proposals.
Regnier had a different version.
“Instead of trying to find a suitable, compliant solution," Apple merely asked the commission for a 18-month exemption, he told reporters at a regular briefing in Brussels.
“Guess what? 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."
EU law is “non-negotiable," Regnier said. “The commission won’t give any exemptions, just like a police officer would not exempt a driver from respecting the speed limit.”
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AP writer Sam McNeil contributed to this report
