Apple backs Google after EU orders Android be opened up to AI rivals

Apple is on Google's side when it comes the latter's criticisms against the European Union's proposals which would give third-party AI services the same level of access to Android that Gemini has. The European Commission has been taking steps to ensure that Google complies with the rules of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). In January, it told the company that it has to give external AI assistants the same access to Android its own technology has and to hand over "anonymized ranking, query, click and view data held by Google Search" to rival search engines.

The aim, the commission said, was to give third-party providers an "an equal opportunity to innovate and compete in the rapidly evolving AI landscape on smart mobile devices." It explained that opening up Android would keep the AI market open and promote innovation in the field. In April, the commission released draft rules with the measures it wants Google to take to comply with its AI demands. Google's counsel argued at the time that the measures would undermine "critical privacy and security for European users" and unnecessarily drive up costs. Apple agreed with Google in its feedback, sent in response to the commission's call for comments on the draft rules it had released.

According to Reuters, Apple echoed Google's statement that allowing competing AI services complete access to Android would undermine European users' privacy. It would, for instance, allow them to interact with the apps people use to send emails, order food ​or share photos. "The DMs (draft measures) raise urgent and serious concerns. ‌If ⁠confirmed, they would create profound risks for user privacy, security, and safety as well as device integrity and performance," the company reportedly wrote. It added that the risks are pretty high, since AI systems are still evolving and have capabilities and behaviors that remain unpredictable. "The EC... is substituting judgments made by Google's engineers for its own judgment based on less than three months of work," the company also wrote, questioning the little time the commission had to write the draft rules. "It ⁠is ​all the more dangerous given the only ​value that can be discerned from the DMs guiding this work appears to be ​open and unfettered access."

Apple has admitted that it has a strong interest in the case, seeing it's also being probed by the commission. The company has long opposed the Digital Markets Act, under which Apple is required to allow third-party marketplaces for apps on its operating system, and had previously asked the commission to repeal it. In January, it accused the EU's executive body of using "political delay tactics" to investigate and fine the company following the shutdown of an alternative app store.