Apple and the EU’s game of chicken over Siri AI: Who will be in control first?

It took a few years, but Apple he finally made his AI look useful. Now millions of iPhone users in Europe are being told they won’t get Siri AI anytime soon, if at all – and Apple wants them to blame the EU.

Apple says its new AI Siri won’t to initiate on iPhones and iPads in the European Union because of the Digital Markets Act, the bloc’s competition law designed to prevent powerful tech companies from acting as gatekeepers to their platforms to block out competitors. Instead, DMA requires the platform to provide competitors with the same types of data as they enjoy, with few exceptions such as ensuring that their system is not compromised.

This need for collaboration means giving groups like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic — as well as all other potential rivals to Siri — the same opportunity as Apple’s systems. For an agent designed to monitor all of your apps, information, photos, messages, and videos and take action on behalf of users, that’s a lot of data acquisition.

For Apple, that’s a lot of opportunity to offer to foreign companies. Doing so would put the privacy and security of its customers at risk, Apple said, so it would allow Siri AI in Europe rather than build on the Brussels initiative and let others in. Apple said it has provided solutions, such as the Trusted System Agent, which can act as an intermediary between AI agents and Apple’s systems, providing similar levels of access and capabilities. Apple said it would take 18 months to complete “gradually”. Apple said the European Commission rejected this and other recommendations and, as things stand, said “there is no time frame for Siri AI to be available in the EU on iOS and iPadOS.”

For its part, the European Commission says everything about its rules and prevents Apple from introducing new products.

“Nothing in the DMA prevents Apple from bringing new products and services to the EU,” European Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso said. Seaside. Cardoso said the Commission has been in “frequent contact with Apple” on the matter, but added that “Apple has not made any proposals to cooperate with the DMA”.

That leaves the two sides at a crossroads. Apple insists that complying with EU regulations would harm its customers’ privacy so it won’t release the AI ​​assistant it has been developing for years. The Commission, meanwhile, says that Apple is using its power to disrupt competitors and limit consumer choice. “It is not for them to decide who can innovate, or to decide which AI tools EU citizens can use,” Cardoso said.

Apple clearly hopes that the court of public opinion will rule in its favor. The company took an unusual step in dedicating its sector Image of WWDC 2026 to explain why Siri AI is not coming to Europe, then published a black chapter blog post in this context: “Due to DMA, Siri AI is delayed in EU on iOS 27 and iPadOS 27.” It has also been holding talks with the media especially on European issues. China will miss out on Siri AI, again due to legal issues. This was given by a a one-sentence footnote.

It’s a well-known Apple strategy. The company has a history of calling for privacy and security as regulators try to open up parts of its closed ecosystem. It has already criticized the DMA’s inconsistent requirements for blocking Instant AirPods definition and iPhone mirroring in the EU, as well as the Maps feature. The concerns are often genuine and legitimate, but they are also among Apple’s most effective arguments for maintaining control over its vast technology empire.

Friso Bostoen, professor of competition law and digital law at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, said there are real security and privacy risks in forcing platforms to open up their systems. But Apple’s privacy and security concerns aren’t always scrutinized, Bostoen said, pointing to recent lawsuits. UK and US where the judges doubted the company’s claims.

Jan Penfrat, chief policy advisor of European Digital Rights (EDRi), a group of NGOs, experts, and supporters of digital rights campaigns across Europe, sees Apple’s recent move as a way to pressure the EU Commission to allow the DMA to be broken. “It’s a very attractive option,” he said. “The problem is not DMA but Apple’s refusal to open its software which is destroying the competition.”

For Michael Veale, a professor of law and technology policy at University College London, the biggest problem is that Apple is abandoning its long-standing privacy and security policies “to stay relevant and in the game” when it comes to AI. “Apple’s privacy and security systems are built like a Jenga platform, based on highly vertical controls by the company, and threats can collapse when interactions occur.” In other words: Apple is open to changing its Siri AI system, giving the AI ​​access to information in a variety of applications, but says the same access is dangerous if competitors are asking for it.

Veale and Penfrat both said there was no way to fully evaluate Apple’s proposed solution because the company had not made it public. Some experts, such as Boston, asked why Apple needed 18 months to achieve this, considering that the operational requirements were obvious and should have been addressed together with the development of Siri AI.

In the end, Apple is playing big chicken with Europe. The EU is a huge market, and Apple has every incentive to find a way to bring Siri AI there, especially since it’s becoming a big part of the iPhone experience. apple managed to install USB-C chargers in his affairs when Europe forced the issue. Will Europe force the AI ​​issue with Apple now, or will Brussels be the one to blink?

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.