The EU just told Google it has until 2027 to let rival AI assistants run as deep on Android as Gemini does

[GradientPiston]

Google and Apple's grip on roughly 5 billion active smartphones worldwide has become the European Commission's newest antitrust target, with regulators demanding that other AI assistants get just as much prominence and system access on phones as Google's own Gemini and Apple's Siri. Under the Digital Markets Act, Google now has until July 2027 to give competing AI agents broader access to Android, rather than reserving deep system integration for its own assistant

The stakes go well beyond a simple app store listing. As AI assistants shift from just answering questions to actually completing tasks, booking a ride, managing messages, controlling other apps, the EU wants users able to trigger any AI assistant they prefer with a voice command, the same way Hey Google currently works, rather than being funneled toward the manufacturer's own default. ChatGPT is already installed on roughly 30 percent of EU smartphones, and Omdia analyst Runar Bjorhovde pointed out the real question this raises, what happens to Google's own ecosystem if a user can just ask ChatGPT to book an Uber and bypass engaging with Android at all

Apple has already responded by simply not shipping its new Siri AI assistant in the EU, a decision the company made back in June specifically because of Digital Markets Act obligations, saying it proposed alternative solutions that regulators rejected while insisting it remains willing to keep working with them. Roughly 427 million iPhones and Android phones across the bloc fall under this regulation

The privacy argument both companies are making isn't baseless, EPIC's Calli Schroeder told CNN that opening deeper access to a phone's operating system without airtight protections really could let apps quietly siphon far more user data than intended, and the stakes get more serious once an AI agent has standing access to someone's messages, location, camera and microphone rather than just answering typed questions. But Schroeder was equally blunt about taking that argument at face value, saying it's fair to ask whether these companies have actually prioritized privacy this consistently before a rule like this started cutting into their own competitive advantage. It's a tension that's likely to keep defining this fight, genuine security risk on one side, and two of the most dominant platform owners in the world having every commercial incentive to resist opening their walled gardens on the other

Apple Google Ai Eu Regulationswww.cnn.com

[LogicWitch]

The Uber booking example is such a clean illustration of what's actually at stake here, that's not a hypothetical, that's exactly the kind of task shift that could genuinely erode Google's platform control if it plays out at scale