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Apple decided not to roll out Siri in EU after denied request for exemption

reuters.com

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Re: Apple decided not to roll out Siri in EU after denied request for exemption

#381

Post by fvdessen »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #173
ErneX wrote: post #119

It would be nice if Europe had companies innovating at this level but it’s not happening. If you make a list of tentative companies that would integrate their stuff to the OS like Siri it’s very likely all those are major US companies, so I don’t even know at this point what the EU is trying to defend here. All I know is we are buying the same devices designed by the US but keep increasing the list of features we can…

> If you make a list of tentative companies that would integrate their stuff to the OS like Siri it’s very likely all those are major US companies Mistral. I’d bet my bottom dollar that the French are the reason the EU is holding firm on its position.

Mistral is against these EU regulations. I bought a printed version of the AI act, it's 600 pages of absolute nonsense, with 5 mandatory committees on national, eu, company level; 12 steps 6 months processes to release a new features; daily reporting obligations to yet another committee. It's just not possible to release software with the regulations as they are written.

Re: Apple decided not to roll out Siri in EU after denied request for exemption

#382

Post by patrickmcnamara »

spullara wrote: post #92
afavour wrote: post #2

Apple said "hey, can we not comply with the law", the EU said no, so it didn't launch. Seems pretty straightforward to me. I can see why Apple might want to request an 18 month exemption, there's clearly extra work required to comply with EU regulations. But on the other hand it also feels like a straightforward play for consumer sympathy: let them get used to using it every day for 18 months, then pressure the EU to…

Personally, I wouldn't want Apple to comply with this EU law and I hope that more companies refuse to release features with onerous requirements. Opening up all access to control the phone to some random app the consumer installed seems super dangerous.

True hacker spirit here.

Re: Apple decided not to roll out Siri in EU after denied request for exemption

#383

Post by hparadiz »

flohofwoe wrote: post #369
eykanal wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google eng mgr here. I've worked on a few projects related to compliance with various government policies. This isn't "assign a two-pizza team to it, will be done in a quarter"; these types of compliance efforts can mean completely redoing multiple core systems to handle privacy, wipeout, audit, reporting, per-location policies, etc etc. These efforts can involve hundreds to thousands of people for multiple years. Su…

> these types of compliance efforts can mean completely redoing multiple core systems to handle privacy, wipeout, audit, reporting, per-location policies, etc etc. These efforts can involve hundreds to thousands of people for multiple years. What if I tell you that there's a surprisingly simple, straightforward and above all very cheap solution: don't implement privacy-invading or anti-competitive features in the fir…

Sure let me wave a magic wand and have a data center that can meet all these regulations materialize before us. Yes I'm sure every American tech company is tripping over themselves rushing to build data centers that are subject to European taxes and regulations for the exact same compute.

Re: Apple decided not to roll out Siri in EU after denied request for exemption

#384

Post by iknowstuff »

nsikorr wrote: post #30

Good for the total of eight users that will then use an alternative agent once it landed. Similar to the twelve people that use alternative app stores.

https://www.epicgames.com/site/news/apple-s-improved-6-step-...

> Prior to Apple's update, around 65% of users attempting to install the Epic Games Store on iOS were thwarted by Apple's deceptive design. After the update, the drop-off rate has gone from 65% down to around 25%, and continues on a downward trend as users upgrade to the new version of iOS.

Re: Apple decided not to roll out Siri in EU after denied request for exemption

#385

Post by JumpCrisscross »

MagnumOpus wrote: post #351
1123581321 wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DMA is a not a privacy-oriented law.

But Apple’s excuse not to comply with it is privacy-related.

How does that reflect poorly (or positively) on their privacy chops? The dispute is about a competition law, a law Apple is complying with by withholding this feature.

Re: Apple decided not to roll out Siri in EU after denied request for exemption

#386

Post by junto »

maniacwhat wrote: post #374

Well done EU for standing up to Apple! The beauty of it is that in their exemption request, Apple claimed they have plans to introduce an intermediary system for other AIs within 18 months. So they can no longer claim that it's impossible for security reasons.

Agreed.

Moreover this claim stinks.

Apple have enough legal experience with the EU and technically competence to have baked EU AI, privacy and anti-monopoly compliance into their product from the start.

In fact any U.S. company could base their products on EU legislation, since it provides wide safeguards for consumer privacy.

Apple deliberately chose not to and are now being deliberately obtuse and misleading.

Anyone would think they didn’t have lawyers.

Either they are incompetent or it’s a deliberate choice to play this card. I don’t think it’s incompetence.

Re: Apple decided not to roll out Siri in EU after denied request for exemption

#388

Post by crazygringo »

afavour wrote: post #2

Apple said "hey, can we not comply with the law", the EU said no, so it didn't launch. Seems pretty straightforward to me. I can see why Apple might want to request an 18 month exemption, there's clearly extra work required to comply with EU regulations. But on the other hand it also feels like a straightforward play for consumer sympathy: let them get used to using it every day for 18 months, then pressure the EU to…

> It's not as if Apple doesn't have the money to dedicate a team to matching the EU's requirements on a deadline. They just choose not to.

That's disingenuous. It's not about money, it's literally about engineering velocity. The amount of planning and engineering required for an entire interoperability layer that also ensures security and privacy is absolutely going to be something like a year-long engineering effort minimum. You can't speed that up by adding more money.

So it's either try to get an exemption to deliver this feature to Europeans while that work gets done, or wait 12-18 months for the work to be done -- work that isn't required to launch in the rest of the world.

Apple just wants consumers to be happy and be able to use their features. But the EU is requiring a ton of additional interop engineering, so consumers will just have to keep waiting and get features 1 or 2 years after the rest of the world, or never.

Re: Apple decided not to roll out Siri in EU after denied request for exemption

#389

Post by benoau »

nonethewiser wrote: post #326
jplrssn wrote: post #15

> EU regulators on Tuesday slammed Apple This reads more like a tabloid headline than the first sentence of a Reuters article.

I agree it’s a bit sensationalist. Here’s the EU Commission spokesperson’s criticism: >“The decision not to roll out Siri AI in the EU is Apple’s and Apple’s only,” spokesperson Thomas Regnier told reporters in Brussels, saying there was nothing in the Digital Markets Act to stop the company from introducing new products in the EU. >“Apple was simply unable to develop interoperability solutions that meet essential EU…

> At a certain point the regulation is self-defeating. What is that point? This is the discussion that the EU lawmakers cannot acknowledge.

Because it's not self-defeating, what would that even be FAANG packing up and abandoning Europe? Worked out splendid for China.

Re: Apple decided not to roll out Siri in EU after denied request for exemption

#390

Post by bryanrasmussen »

t-sauer wrote: post #380
viktorcode wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should remember that according to a court testimony the whole European area (which goes beyond EU) gives Apple 7% of their revenue, whereas breaking DMCA may incur penalties of ups to 10% of global turnover. Those numbers make withholding "risky" products a no-brainer strategy. Also, those numbers put a hard limit of how much Apple will want reevaluate their general strategy of tightly integrated first-party soft…

Which court testimony are you talking about? A quick google search suggests that Europe is responsible for roughly 25% of their revenue. Edit: 26% of their net sales comes from Europe for Q1: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/fy2026-q1/FY26_Q1_Consol...

there's a difficulty in evaluating how much goes into Apple revenue because Apple mixes Europe (not just EU) and Middle East.

The 7% probably comes from a Daring Fireball article, based on misunderstanding some Apple communications, and which Gruber later had to backtrack

https://medium.com/luminasticity/when-smart-people-cant-reas...

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