Apple warns EU about Android AI

Apple told European Union regulators on May 13 that draft rules forcing Google to open key Android features to rival AI assistants would create new privacy, security and safety risks, aligning itself publicly with Google in a live Digital Markets Act dispute. The filing put Apple on the same side as Alphabet in a case centered on Android, even as Apple faces its own EU interoperability demands under the same law. The European Commission opened the consultation on April 27 and closed it on May 13 as part of proceedings it began on January 27. The case now moves toward a binding decision due by July 27, 2026. ### Why is Apple weighing in on a case about Google’s Android? Apple said in its submission that it has a “strong interest” in the case because the Commission’s approach to Android could shape how regulators handle third-party AI access across other operating systems, including Apple’s own. Reuters reported that Apple framed the dispute as broader than Google, saying the draft measures raised questions about how platforms assign authority, user consent and responsibility when outside AI systems act through operating-system features. (digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu) The European Commission has designated Apple as a DMA gatekeeper for iOS, the App Store and Safari since September 2023, and for iPadOS since April 2024, according to Apple’s legal DMA page. That makes Apple both an interested third party here and a company with direct exposure to similar interoperability requirements in Europe. ### What exactly is Brussels trying to make Google do? (wifc.com) The Commission said on April 27 that its draft measures would require Alphabet to ensure “effective interoperability” between Android and competing AI services under Article 6(7) of the DMA. The proposed measures are aimed at features Google currently reserves largely for its own AI offerings on Android phones and tablets, including Gemini. (apple.com) The consultation materials say the measures cover several concrete capabilities: letting rival AI services be invoked with their own wake words, allowing them to interact with users’ apps to understand context and carry out tasks, and giving them access to hardware and software resources needed to work reliably. The Commission said those changes are meant to let users choose alternatives that can do things such as send an email, order food or share a photo through Android apps. (ec.europa.eu) ### What did Apple say the risks are? Apple said the draft measures raise “urgent and serious concerns” and, if confirmed, would create “profound risks” for privacy, security, safety, device integrity and performance, according to Reuters’ account of the filing. Apple added that those risks are “especially acute” because AI systems are evolving quickly and their capabilities, behavior and threat vectors remain unpredictable. (digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu) Reuters also reported that Apple accused the Commission of effectively redesigning an operating system by replacing engineering judgments made by Google with its own. Apple said the regulator was doing that on the basis of “less than three months of work,” a reference to the period between the January 27 opening of the specification proceedings and the April 27 publication of the preliminary findings. That timing is consistent with the Commission’s published schedule. (wifc.com) ### What is Google’s position? Alphabet-owned Google has argued that the proposal would weaken privacy and security protections for European users by giving rival AI services deeper access to Android apps and system functions, according to Reuters and the Commission’s summary of the case. The Commission, for its part, said Google currently keeps many of those capabilities for its own services and that opening them would give users in the EU a wider choice of AI tools. (wifc.com) The dispute is therefore centered on the same technical access points but described in different terms by each side. Google and Apple describe them as sensitive system surfaces tied to safety and accountability, while the Commission describes them as key Android capabilities that competing providers need in order to offer equivalent AI experiences. That contrast is an inference from the parties’ published positions. (wifc.com) ### Why does the DMA matter here? The DMA is the EU law used to force large designated platforms to open certain services and interfaces to rivals on fairer terms. In this case, the Commission is using Article 6(7), which requires gatekeepers to provide interoperability with hardware and software features of designated operating systems. (digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu) The January 27 proceedings do not by themselves declare Google non-compliant. The Commission said they are specification proceedings meant to spell out the measures Google must take, and they are separate from any later non-compliance decision or fines. (digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu) ### What happens next, and when? The public consultation ran from April 27 to May 13, 2026, with submissions invited from companies, developers and other interested parties. The Commission said it will review feedback from third parties and from Google, and that the input could lead to changes in the draft measures. (digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu) July 27, 2026, is the next hard date in the case. The Commission said the final decision in the Android AI interoperability proceedings must be adopted within six months of the January 27 opening of the specification process, and that decision will set the final binding measures for Alphabet. (ec.europa.eu) (digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu)