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by pastel8739 3 days ago
> Given the serious risks to users, Apple designed a solution called Trusted System Agent — an intermediary that would allow virtual assistants to safely access the same features and capabilities as Siri AI for devices in the EU. Apple also shared a plan to launch Siri AI in the EU while gradually rolling out this new solution over an 18-month period. The European Commission said no. In fact, the European Commission did not agree to any of Apple’s proposals.

I'm extrapolating (there is less detail in that press release than I expected from your comment), but this sounds to be like it would be the thing that enables such a "list of permissions". I would be curious to know exactly what this agent entailed and why the EU did not approve it.
1 comments
himata4113 3 days ago
"Trusted System Agent" imo sounds like an apple approved agent which would only be available to companies that accept apples (likely unreasonable) demands and would completely lock smaller companies out of the ecosystem.
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dwaite 3 days ago
My limited understanding is that it would be a local model that exists only to determine a limited set of local information necessary to answer the user's request. This request and information would then be shared with the third party. Third parties would otherwise not have access into the local semantic model based on user personal data.
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josephg 3 days ago
Does apple's own siri need to pass requests through their gatekeeper AI? I bet it doesn't. Personally, I'm generally happy with any answer apple comes up with so long as they're bound by the same set of restrictions as 3rd party companies. I feel like that's the only way to make sure apple won't "accidentally" hobble their competitors. (Like they did with their ridiculous 50c per app install fee for 3rd party app stores).

I want Claude and OpenAI to be able to compete with Siri on an equal footing. Just like Apple maps has to compete with google maps. Competition pushes companies to make better products.

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pastel8739 3 days ago
Hm, I didn’t even consider that it could be an “agent” in the AI sense. I assumed this meant a service that runs on the device and interposes on requests to access privileged resources and enforces permissions checks on them. That is, the classical sense of the word agent in computing. Perhaps you’re right; in any case I don’t think there is really enough detail here to go off of.
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