Apple delays launch of AI-powered features in Europe, blaming EU rules | Apple

Apple will delay launching three new artificial intelligence features in Europe because European Union competition rules require the company ensure that rival products and services can function with its devices. The features will launch in the fall in the US but will not arrive in Europe until 2025.

The company said on Friday three features – Phone Mirroring, SharePlay Screen Sharing enhancements, and Apple Intelligence – will not be rolled out to EU users this year because of regulatory uncertainties due to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Apple said the EU’s regulations would force it to compromise its devices’ security, an argument it has made before and that EU officials have pushed back on.

“Specifically, we are concerned that the interoperability requirements of the DMA could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security,” Apple said in an email.

In a statement to Bloomberg, the European Commission said Apple would be welcome in the EU provided it followed the laws there.

Earlier this month, the company debuted Apple Intelligence at its annual developer conference, a suite of artificial intelligence features that integrate ChatGPT and Siri to search the web and generate images or text.

When the next version of Apple’s mobile operating system is released later this year, the assistive features will also be able to look through a phone’s emails, texts and photos to find specific information based on a user’s prompts.

The company said the features would be available on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac with its M1 chip and later versions. iPhone Mirroring on MacOS Sequoia allows the phone’s screen to be viewed and interacted with on Mac computers.

“We are committed to collaborating with the European Commission in an attempt to find a solution that would enable us to deliver these features to our EU customers without compromising their safety,” Apple’s statement read.

Apple made a point to repeatedly promise that its new AI features will be private. In early June, chief executive Tim Cook promised that its features would “be grounded in your personal context like your routine, your relationships, your communications and more”.