Plot twist: Apple defends Google in Europe over AI use

It’s not every day you witness a a convergence of interests between the two largest tech giants, and yet the recent moves by European institutions have created an unusual front.

Apple has in fact come to the defense of Mountain View’s historic rival, expressing strong opposition to the European Commission’s draft measures related to the Digital Markets Act.

The measures under discussion would require Google to open the Android operating system to competing artificial intelligence services. If implemented, these external entities would gain a very deep access to system apps, coming to autonomously handle daily tasks such as sending emails, sharing photos, and ordering meals.

According to Cupertino’s leadership, this imposition would generate critical vulnerabilities, jeopardizing user privacy and the overall security of devices.

Apple and Google, a united front in Europe

The concerns raised are not limited to a generic defense of the corporate perimeter. The official document submitted by the May 13 deadline explicitly underscores how artificial intelligences are technologies that are rapidly and continually evolving. Their capabilities and the potential cyber threats that they could convey remain difficult to predict with precision.

Forcing the architecture of a smartphone to interface freely with these external systems risks undermining the protections built in over 10 years of intense development. Google had previously emphasized this aspect as well, noting how forced interoperability would nullify some fundamental guarantees for European citizens.

For her part, the EU antitrust commissioner Teresa Ribera defends the initiative, arguing that it is indispensable to ensure greater freedom of choice for those using an Android device.

Critiche alle tempistiche dell’Unione Europea

A particularly hard-hitting part of Apple’s remarks concerns the working method adopted by the legislators of the old continent.

The accusation directed at Brussels is that it aims to redesign the very foundations of an operating system based on a study period of less than three months. Cupertino considers it very dangerous that the Commission claims to be able to replace the technical judgment and the experience gained by Google’s software engineers over years of work with urgent directives of a purely bureaucratic nature.

According to the documentation presented, the only guiding principle followed by regulators seems to be the pursuit of free and unrestricted access, carelessly neglecting the practical consequences on overall performance and the integrity of smartphones.

I possibili precedenti per i sistemi chiusi

The interest of the iPhone maker in this particular case not purely altruistic. Apple is also subject to the same rules set forth by the Digital Markets Act for opening its software ecosystems, which include the operating systems used for phones, tablets and laptops.

The European Union’s final decision is expected for the month of July and will definitively determine the conformity of the procedures adopted by Google.

If Brussels’ stringent approach were endorsed, Android would undergo a profound transformation in the management of permissions for third-party software.

Such an eventuality strongly concerns Cupertino executives, who fear that a regulatory concession on this front could translate into a legal and technical precedent also applicable to their devices, compromising the locked-down structure of the code that has always protected its users.