The highly anticipated AI upgrades to Apple's Siri voice assistant have been announced this week at the company's annual World Wide Developers' Conference. The new features are set to be released later this year, but will initially be unavailable to users in the E.U. (except on Macs and Vision Pro headsets) and mainland China due to regulatory issues.
The situation for Apple users in China has been likened to the official formulation 一国两制 yī guó liǎng zhì, or "One Country, Two Systems," referring to the principle by which Hong Kong and Macau exercise limited autonomy within China. The pun highlights the discrepancy between Apple's products in the two regions.
In the E.U.'s case, the issue is the requirement under the Digital Markets Act that third-party AI services must receive the same data and system access as Apple's own. The company has argued that this would present unacceptable privacy and security risks, and criticized European regulators for their "extreme interpretation" of the law.
Apple has not provided a similarly detailed explanation for the lack of Siri AI in China, offering only a brief statement noting that the feature is not available while the company works through regulatory requirements.
The regulatory requirements in question will likely include domestic chatbot safety checks related to 31 risk categories, with "incitement to subvert state power and overthrow the socialist system" topping the list. This has led to some Chinese chatbots refusing to explain sensitive phrases, such as "It's my duty," which is associated with the 1989 Tiananmen protests.
Chinese users have domestic alternatives to Apple's AI features, and the company is seen as lagging behind the competition in markets where its AI features are available. However, Apple still maintains an aura of prestige and sophistication among some Chinese consumers, and the lack of AI features is galling for those who value the technology.
