Apple to halt shipments of its AI to Europe this year over regulation

Much of the new features Apple announced two weeks ago at WWDC, including its artificial intelligence ecosystem called Apple Intelligence, won’t be available to European users of its devices until at least this year. The reason for the suspension is the fact that the European Commission has appointed the company as custodian of its iOS and iPadOS operating systems, which could also affect other announced technologies.

This Monday, Brussels said it was investigating Apple for possible violations of the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA) when developers access its App Store.

The company says it has left its European customers with fewer benefits this year for security reasons.

So far, the Tim Cook-led company has made changes such as opening its app store to third parties or modifying the iPhone’s connector to meet community lead demands, but the Commission believes it did so improperly. .. to the law on several counts, so it has launched an investigation that could result in a record fine of up to 38 billion euros, equivalent to 10% of its annual global turnover.

If Apple has so far given in to several EU demands for artificial intelligence and other new features for the first time, it seems unwilling to give in, although it is willing to negotiate some changes.

Over the weekend, an Apple spokesperson said the company intends to “make these technologies available to all users.” “However,” he countered, “due to the regulatory uncertainty caused by the Digital Markets Act, we do not believe we will be able to implement three of these features – iPhone mirroring, screen sharing improvements with SharePlay and Apple Intelligence – in our EU . users.”

The reason why Apple claims to have left its EU customers without AI or this feature. mirror reflection which renders an iPhone on a Mac screen, addresses security: “We are concerned that DMA interoperability requirements may cause us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that compromise user privacy and data security.” The company promised to “work with the European Commission to try to find a solution” that will allow it to offer these benefits “without compromising its safety.”

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