Game of chicken between Apple and the EU over Siri AI: who blinks first?

It took a few years, but Apple Finally making his AI seem useful. Now millions of iPhone users in Europe are being told they won’t get Siri AI anytime soon, if ever, and Apple wants them to blame the EU.

Apple says its new AI-powered Siri system won’t do that He releases on iPhones and iPads in the European Union due to the Digital Markets Act, the bloc’s competition law designed to prevent powerful tech companies from acting as gatekeepers on their platforms to keep out rivals. In practice, the DMA requires platforms to give competitors the same types of access to data they have, with some exceptions for things like ensuring their system is not compromised.

This interoperability requirement means giving groups like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic — as well as any other potential Siri competitors — similar access to Apple’s systems. For an Assistant designed to search apps, personal information, photos, messages, and videos and take actions on users’ behalf, that’s a lot of reach.

For Apple, this is too great a reach to hand over to outside companies. Apple said doing so would put the privacy and security of its customers at risk, so much so that it would rather block Siri AI from Europe than build it on Brussels’ terms and let others in. Apple said it has proposed solutions, such as a Trusted System Agent, which would act as an intermediary between competing AI agents and Apple’s systems, providing similar levels of access and capability. Apple said it would need 18 months to implement it on a “rolling, gradual” basis. Apple said the European Commission rejected this and its other proposals, saying that, as it stands, “there is currently no timeline for the availability of Siri AI in the EU on iOS and iPadOS.”

For its part, the European Commission says that its rules do not prevent Apple from offering new features.

“There is nothing in the DMA that prevents Apple from introducing new products and services in the European Union,” European Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso said. Edge. Cardoso said the Commission was in “regular contact with Apple” on the issue, but added that “Apple has not developed proposals for DMA-compliant interoperability solutions.”

This leaves both sides at an impasse. Apple insists that complying with EU rules would jeopardize its customers’ privacy to the point that it would rather not launch the artificial intelligence assistant it has been working on for years. Meanwhile, the Commission says Apple is using its power to thwart competitors and limit consumer choices. “They do not get to decide who can innovate, or choose which AI tools EU citizens can use,” Cardoso said.

Apple is clearly hoping the court of public opinion will rule in its favor. The company took the unusual step of allocating part of its holdings WWDC 2026 Main Conference To explain why Siri AI has not arrived in Europe, he then published an article with the title Glacier Blog post On this matter: “Due to DMA, Siri AI is delayed in the EU for iOS 27 and iPadOS 27.” It also holds media briefings on the European issue specifically. China will also miss out on Siri AI, again due to regulatory challenges. This was conveyed through A One-sentence footnote.

It’s a familiar tactic for Apple. The company has a history of raising privacy and security concerns when regulators try to get it to open up parts of its famously closed ecosystem. It has already blamed DMA interoperability requirements for the blocking AirPods live translation and iPhone mirroring In the European Union, in addition to mapping features. These concerns are often real and legitimate, but they are also among the most effective arguments Apple makes for maintaining control over its vast technology empire.

Friso Postoijn, a professor of competition law and digital regulation at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, said there were very real security and privacy risks in forcing platforms to open up their systems. But Apple’s privacy- and security-focused arguments don’t always stand up to scrutiny, Bustoin said, pointing to recent lawsuits in the United States. UK and we The judges were skeptical about the company’s claims.

Jean Benferat, senior policy advisor for European Digital Rights (EDRI), a network of NGOs, experts and advocates fighting for digital rights across Europe, sees Apple’s latest moves as a way to pressure the EU Commission to allow it to breach the DMA. “It’s very much a pressure tactic,” he said. “The problem is not with the DMA but with Apple refusing to open up its software ecosystem to the competition.”

For Michael Fell, a professor of technology law and policy at University College London, the key issue is that Apple has long been making exceptions to its privacy and security settings “in order to stay relevant in the game” when it comes to artificial intelligence. “Apple’s privacy and security model is designed like a Jenga tower, based on highly vertical control by the company, and is at risk of collapsing when interoperability is introduced.” In other words: Apple is comfortable changing its Siri AI practices, giving the AI ​​the ability to access a lot of data across different apps, but says the same kind of access is too risky when competitors ask for it.

Both Veale and Penfrat said there is no way to properly evaluate Apple’s proposed solution because the company has not announced it. Other experts, like Postoin, questioned why Apple needed 18 months to implement it, given that interoperability requirements were expected and should have been addressed in parallel with Siri AI development.

Ultimately, Apple is playing a big game of chicken with Europe. The EU is a huge market, and Apple has every incentive to find a way to eventually bring Siri AI there, especially as it becomes a bigger part of the iPhone experience. apple I was able to place USB-C chargers In its products when Europe imposed this issue. Will Europe force the AI ​​issue on Apple now, or will Brussels be the first to back down?

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.