Apple will delay the launch of three new artificial intelligence features in Europe because European Union competition rules require the company to ensure that rival products and services can work with its devices. The features will launch in the fall in the US, but won’t arrive in Europe until 2025.
The company said on Friday that three features (Phone Mirroring, improvements to SharePlay Screen Sharing and Apple Intelligence) will not be rolled out to EU users this year due to regulatory uncertainties due to the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Apple said EU regulations would force it to compromise the security of its devices, an argument it has made before and which EU officials have rejected.
“Specifically, we are concerned that the DMA’s interoperability requirements could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that put user privacy and data security at risk,” Apple said in an email.
In a statement to BloombergThe European Commission said Apple would be welcome in the EU as long as it followed the laws there.
Earlier this month, the company introduced Apple Intelligence at its annual developer conference, a set 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 launches later this year, assistive features will also be able to review a phone’s emails, text messages and photos to find specific information based on user prompts.
The company said the features would be available on the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac with its M1 chip and later. iPhone Mirroring on MacOS Sequoia allows you to view and interact with your phone screen on Mac computers.
“We are committed to working with the European Commission in an attempt to find a solution that allows us to offer these features to our EU customers without compromising their security,” Apple’s statement read.
Apple made sure to repeatedly promise that its new AI features will be private. In early June, CEO Tim Cook promised that its features would “be based on your personal context like your routine, your relationships, your communications, and more.”
