Corporation fears for data protection
EU initially remains outside of Apple’s AI functions
21.06.2024, 21:40
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Apple recently introduced its own artificial intelligence. However, “Apple Intelligence” will initially only be available to a few users in the USA. In Europe, the new functions will not be introduced at all for the time being – because there is a significant obstacle.
Apple will not bring its recently announced new AI functions to the EU for the time being. The iPhone company points to uncertainties due to the EU digital law DMA. Above all, Apple is concerned that the DMA requirements for opening up to other manufacturers and service providers could compromise the protection of user data.
The cornerstone of Apple’s vision for useful artificial intelligence is that the software will have in-depth access to user data on the devices. This means that “Apple Intelligence” will be able to quickly answer the question of whether you will make it to an appointment if your plans change, for example, or summarize emails and sort them by importance.
A key requirement of the EU law DMA (Digital Markets Act) is that large platforms declared “gatekeepers” must grant access to other providers and may not give preference to their own offerings. At the same time, there is an exception if this could compromise the “integrity” of the services. However, it is not clear whether the EU Commission would accept Apple’s concerns about data security as a reason for such an exception. From autumn, the functions will initially only be available in the USA and only in English, and only on devices that have the necessary hardware.
Some other functions announced last week at Apple’s WWDC developer conference are also affected by the delay. These include “iPhone mirroring,” which gives you full access to your Apple smartphone from a Mac computer, as well as sharing your screen with other users. Apple emphasizes that it is in talks with the EU Commission about a solution and wants to make the functions available in Europe. However, this will not happen this year. Apple traditionally releases beta test versions of the new software in the summer – and makes them available to everyone in the fall with a new iPhone generation.