The Siri/EU situation is a regulatory masterpiece.
Apple cannot launch Apple Intelligence in the EU.
Why? Because under the DMA, if Siri gets deep system access, every other AI assistant must get the exact same. Anything less would be unfair competition. A gatekeeper privileging its own service.
So either Siri ships and every Shenzhen startup, Cyprus shell company, and nephew hackathon project gets identical root access to 450 million Europeans’ digital lives or nothing ships.
Apple proposed a “Trusted System Agent”: a security intermediary so third-party assistants get capabilities without ripping the phone wide open.
The EU rejected it.
Magnificent.
Apple’s response: fine, then no developer APIs either. No Apple Intelligence, no third-party integrations, no foundation model access for EU developers. The entire layer simply does not exist on this continent.
Excellent.
This is the path. Why depend on American AI when we can build the entire stack ourselves? A European foundation model, trained on a European GPU cluster, running on a European OS, on a European phone, manufactured in a European fab, powered by European nuclear plants we have spent fifteen years closing.
Estimated time to ship: 2047.
Estimated cost: the GDP of three member states.
Estimated outcome: a chatbot that requires a cookie banner before each response.
Worth it.
In the meantime, European users are protected from Apple processing data Apple already holds by ensuring nobody processes anything at all.
Not a bug. The intended outcome.
Regulatory product design with a sledgehammer, swung with precision.
🇪🇺