The European Commission is cracking down on Google and Apple’s control of the AI assistant market. The commission wants other virtual assistants to be as prominent on smartphones as Google’s Gemini and Apple’s Siri.

Privacy Concerns

Google and Apple are pushing back, citing serious privacy concerns. They argue that opening up their platforms could allow external apps to access sensitive user data.

Experts agree that allowing external services to access Apple’s and Google’s operating systems could be dangerous for security and user privacy. However, some question whether privacy is Google’s primary motivation for pushing back on the EU’s rules.

Regulatory Impact

The EU’s Digital Markets Act, which went into effect in 2023, aims to level the playing field in the AI race. The act requires Google to give other AI agents broader access to Android by July 2027 and to share search data with other search engines and AI chatbots.

Google must start sharing search data in January under the new mandate. The company says the Android changes would pose a major security risk and that sharing search data would weaken citizen privacy, risk business trade secrets, and endanger national security.

Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.