Somewhat hidden by the actual introduction of Apple Intelligence and a whole new ecosystem of AI PCs – Macs – that will run Apple’s AI tools and also have the power to run ChatGPT and other AI agents, the company announced its EU iPhone/iPad launch plans for the new service.
Apple promises EU a little AI love
The story so far is that a few months ago Apple warned that it would be unable to introduce Apple Intelligence in the EU pending further clarification as to how the bloc would regulate the tech. As a result we have a slight dichotomy in that Apple Intelligence is already available to EU users on Macs, but not on iPhones or iPads, both of which are regulated under the EU’s DMA. Given the personal nature of the information AI makes use of to generate its almost smart results, Apple wanted to ensure the privacy and security of users in the EU would not be compromised. It has presumably been meeting with EU regulators to gain such clarity ever since.
Signs are it’s April
We don’t know the extent of the clarification the company has achieved on the matter. Nor do we know for certain if the service will actually be introduced in the EU in April 2025. But what Apple has told us is to expect a software update in April ’25 which will expand the number of languages supported by Apple Intelligence. “Chinese, English (India), English (Singapore), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Vietnamese, and other languages will be supported,” it said.
That’s positive, and hints at an April introduction to the EU for Apple Intelligence, but it could equally simply mean other regions outside of Europe that happen to use those languages as a result of historical colonial expansionism and economic exploitation of those territories will get to use the AI first. We live in hope that Europe doesn’t end up being left behind.
Apple also let us know it will introduce localized English support for Apple Intelligence in December, with local language versions for Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K. made available.
Apple Intelligence on fast track for feature enhancement
Finally, Apple also revealed some additional enhancements to the Apple Intelligence features it has already introduced these include:
“In December, Writing Tools will get even more powerful with the ability for users to describe a specific change they want to apply to their text, like making a dinner party invite read like a poem, or adding more dynamic action words to a résumé. And users will have the option to access ChatGPT’s broad world knowledge within Writing Tools and Siri, allowing them to benefit from its image- and document-understanding capabilities without needing to jump between tools.
“Also coming in December, a new visual intelligence experience will build on Apple Intelligence and help users learn about objects and places instantly, thanks to the new Camera Control on the iPhone 16 lineup.Users will be able to pull up details about a restaurant in front of them and interact with information — for example, translating text from one language to another. Camera Control will also serve as a gateway to third-party tools with specific domain expertise, like when users want to search Google for where they can buy an item, or benefit from ChatGPT’s problem-solving skills. Users are in control of when third-party tools are used and what information is shared.
“In the months to come, Priority Notifications will surface what’s most important, and Siri will become even more capable, with the ability to draw on a user’s personal context to deliver intelligence that’s tailored to them. Siri will also gain onscreen awareness, as well as be able to take hundreds of new actions in and across Apple and third-party apps.”
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