Mark Zuckerberg stated back in 2010, that privacy was no longer a social norm. Whilst Facebook now claims to have pivoted away from this idea in favour of user privacy, this notion is nonetheless pervasive amongst American big tech, with even Apple, who are highly regarded in both consumer trust and data privacy, still harvesting personal data on a global scale to inform their products and marketing.
It’s these ideas of privacy and security that are now central to the reasoning behind Apple’s decision to delay the launch of ‘Apple Intelligence’ on its new iPhone 16, citing ‘regulatory uncertainty’ around the EU’s Digital Markets Act, specifically its interoperability provisions. Apple argue that the EU’s Digital Markets Act could ‘force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security’.
This article provides information on Apple Intelligence and whether the EU’s Digital Markets Act welcomes the tool, evaluates the growing tensions between Apple and the EU and also provides an update as to whether Apple Intelligence will be available in the UK.
Apple has partnered with OpenAI, the founders of ChatGPT, the chatbot powered by generative AI, to enhance its virtual assistant Siri, provide integrated ChatGPT access and generate images and text on its latest operating software, iOS 18. The AI features of iOS 18 will only be available on the latest Apple chipset, the iPhone 16 range, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
The big difference between Apple Intelligence and its competitors, Google and Microsoft, is that the AI is mostly powered by the iPhone’s hardware itself, rather than communicating with cloud-based hardware. Cloud-based AI has so far been preferable due to AI requiring high processing power, not traditionally available to handheld devices. Even Apple’s AI will still have to use external servers for help on ‘more complex requests’ .
The on-device nature of Apple Intelligence allows it to be purportedly more private, allowing a closed loop of personal data that does not need to be stored externally on a cloud server.
Under Article 6(7) of the EU’s Digital Markets Act, a gatekeeper (which Apple has been designated as), must allow third parties interoperability with both hardware and software features accessed or controlled by their operating systems, in Apple’s case, iOS and iPadOS. This must be done free of charge, however a gatekeeper can take strictly necessary and proportionate measures, which must be justified, to ensure this interoperability doesn’t compromise the integrity of their services.
Effectively, this means that Apple would have to let others look under the hood of their operating systems in order to understand and work with it. This is all in the EU’s spirit of fair and open digital marketplaces.
It’s important to understand that the EU aren’t pushing Apple away, with the European Commission stating they would welcome Apple’s innovation as long as they followed its laws. The European Commission have even recently announced they are issuing two ‘specification proceedings’ to aid Apple in complying with the EU’s Digital Markets Act.
Rather than a ‘regulatory uncertainty’ due to unclear laws, Apple’s decision to delay it’s AI launch in the EU appears to be due to ideological differences. Whilst the EU wants to level the playing field by making Apple’s technology available to those interested, Apple are seeking to maintain the mystique and leverage their market position. It’s therefore Apple’s own technological privacy and security that is central to the deadlock, rather than that of its users as it claims.
Their clash with the EU is comparable to Facebook’s recent decision to not release an advanced version of their Meta AI virtual assistant in Europe due to the ‘unpredictable’ behaviour of the regulators. In reality, this decision was potentially made to make an example of the EU, after Ireland’s data regulator ordered it to stop training the AI model on posts from EU users, citing potential violation of the GDPR .
These conflicts between the American tech giants and the EU show an emerging tension between their approaches to innovation, with Silicon Valley looking to withhold their new technologies in retaliation to the EU’s regulatory pressures. Only time will tell whether the EU can break the monopolies of big tech or be left languishing without the technologies emerging from America.
The UK has not directly adopted the EU’s Digital Markets Act, seeking to implement something similar in its Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, due to be in force next year. Even once this is in force, Apple would need to be designated with strategic market status before it needs to concern itself with this regulation. It’s for this reason that Apple Intelligence will be available in the UK and not in the EU.
The UK is therefore in a unique position in this ideological battle, able to reap the rewards of American technology whilst having the option to follow the EU’s greater regulatory approach to innovation down the line should it choose to.
For more information, please contact the commercial team.
