alt Hacker NewsThis appears to be the current feature prototype intended for the EU and potentially China. Apple has chosen not to release the new Siri AI in the EU because our Digital Markets Act requires them to allow interoperability. I.e. that users be allowed to choose another AI provider.
Ostensibly they'll activate this in the EU when it's ready. Given the current functionality, it looks ready (or close to being ready). My guess is it is ready and Apple is doing their usual negotiation tactics with the EU to see who blinks first.
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Apple proposed a solution to the EU after reportedly extensive talks and asked the EU if it would satisfy them.
The EU said “build it then we’ll tell you”, which is crazy.
The problem is not having Siri use different models beneath. That’s not what the EU wants. They want Siri to be replaced by Gemini/etc completely. Which fits with the DMA.
Apple’s proposal was for something akin to an agent that could gather the necessary data for the 3rd party AI to use. Because what they refused to do is let any other AI have unfettered access to everything whenever it wants.
So I suspect this is really for Apple’s benefit. I don’t think the EU would be happy if you could still use Siri, but it was grok underneath. Because that would still be Siri.
My secret hope is that Tim Cook was the main weight behind cutting off half the new features from Apple software in the EU an attempt to weaponize their users against legislators. Even features that have had analogues where nobody would've ever asked for interoperability (i.e. Handoff/Continuity exists in the EU, but iPhone mirroring doesn't)
This is not how politics works here.