Apple CEO Tim Cook held “constructive” talks with EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen on Tuesday about releasing Siri AI in the bloc while respecting the bloc’s digital rules, reports the Financial Times ($).
An EU spokesperson told the publication that the virtual meeting allowed for a “constructive exchange on topics of common interest, on which work continues.”
Siri AI will be available for free with iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 when they release in September. However, Siri, an enhanced chatbot, will not be available in the EU on iOS and iPadOS until it finds a way forward within the bloc’s regulatory framework. This includes the new Siri app for revisiting conversations, expanded visual intelligence capabilities, built-in writing tools, Siri Mode in the Camera app on iPhone, and much more.
When Siri AI’s new and improved features were announced at WWDC 2026 last month, Apple said European regulators did not accept any of the company’s proposed solutions for bringing Siri AI to the EU while safely supporting other virtual assistants.
According to the Commission, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) requires Apple to give competing AI assistants access to the same underlying capabilities of the iPhone as Siri, allowing them to perform many of the same tasks on behalf of a user with the user’s appropriate consent.
To solve this problem, Apple came up with the idea of a Trusted System Agent, a middleware designed to allow third-party virtual assistants to securely access the same system capabilities as Siri AI on EU devices. Apple said the EU rejected the proposal.
The EU quickly hit back at the claim, however, saying the decision not to launch Siri AI in the bloc was entirely up to Apple and that the company was seeking an exemption from its legal obligations rather than a compliant solution. Regulators also said Apple had simply requested a blanket exemption from its interoperability obligations under the DMA, which the Commission said is not an available option.
The dispute sparked a wave of criticism of the Commission. According to the Financial TimesEU officials have received hundreds of emails from consumers accusing Brussels of denying Europeans access to the new technology.
As for Apple’s proposed Trusted System Agent, a Commission official told the publication that its contacts with Apple on the matter were limited and lacked a concrete proposal or details on how such an agent would work beyond the general concept. The official claimed that Apple was “focused on getting the green light to delay compliance.”
“Apple’s proposal to delay interoperability of third-party AI agents while making its product available to users would have risked leading to a beefing up of its service before others have a chance to compete for at least two years, if not longer,” the official said.
On the other hand, the official said that Google’s changes to Android prompted the Commission to open a formal consultation on how the company could comply with the DMA and avoid heavy fines.
Apple has not publicly commented on the latest round of discussions.
Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion on this topic, the discussion thread is located in our political news forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
