During the announcement of Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2024, Apple said that the technology would be available first for US English and that support for more languages would be added over the next year. However, users in China and the European Union won’t be able to try out the AI features at all – but Apple says it’s working with regulators to change that.
Apple Intelligence in China and the EU
Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked on Thursday during a call with investors about the availability of Apple Intelligence in other markets, especially China and the EU. Cook didn’t provide many details about this, but said that Apple is “engaged” with regulators to make AI features available to “everyone.”
According to the executive, the company first wants to understand all the regulatory requirements before providing a timeframe for enabling Apple Intelligence in these regions.
We’re engaged, as you would guess, with both regulatory bodies that you mentioned. And our objective is to move as fast as we can, obviously, because our objective is always to get features out there for everyone. We have to understand the regulatory requirements before we can commit to doing that and commit a schedule to doing that, but we’re very constructively engaged with both.
Although Apple Intelligence is only available in English, users can get a preview of the new features by switching their devices to English and setting the region to United States in the settings. However, for those in China and the European Union, the AI features have been completely blocked by Apple.
Apple said in a statement that the features would be blocked in the EU due to “privacy and security concerns.” Most likely, Apple fears having to change how Apple Intelligence works in Europe due to local legislation regulating AI. As for China, local legislation requires data to be processed on Chinese servers instead of being sent to third-party servers in other countries.
More languages coming next year
When it comes to support for more languages, Tim Cook reiterated during the call that Apple Intelligence will be launched this fall in US English and that more functionalities, features, and languages will be added “across the next year.”
When asked, he didn’t specify whether these updates will come with a new version of iOS 18 in the first half of the year or with iOS 19 in the fall of 2025.
Although the Apple Intelligence features will be available for free with the iOS 18 and macOS 15 updates, they require the latest Apple devices – such as M1 or later iPads and Macs or the iPhone 15 Pro.
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