A Continent Without A.I. Agents: Europe Has to Wait for Dots, Muse and Siri AI

The newest wave of AI agents is rolling out almost everywhere except Europe. OpenAI’s dots arrived at DevDay in San Francisco, but not for Pro users in the European Economic Area, Switzerland or the UK. Apple’s new Siri AI is also missing from iPhone and iPad in the EU, while Meta’s Muse is only live in the U.S. for now. Three launches, three different excuses, same basic result: Europeans are watching from the sidelines.

OpenAI is putting a steep price tag on access. Dots is included only in Pro and Business Premium plans, and only in eligible markets. The Pro plan costs $200 a month in the U.S. and 229 euros in Europe with VAT. Business Premium runs at $100, or about 85 euros, per person. In Austria, Germany and Switzerland, that is currently the only route to dots because Business Premium is available there. Enterprise customers can test the beta once admins switch it on.

And the pricing may get stranger. At the end of October, OpenAI plans to cut the usage allowance in the $200 Pro plan in half while introducing a new $500 Pro plan, listed at 510 euros in Europe. During the first month, work done by dots will not count against the allowance. After that, OpenAI says it will set terms for each plan. How much a background agent actually consumes remains unclear, which is not exactly comforting when the thing can keep working for days.

The regulatory angle is doing a lot of the work here. Dots would need ongoing access to email, calendars and connected apps, which raises GDPR issues around legal basis, purpose and profiling. The EU’s AI Act has already brought transparency duties into force, with fines of up to 15 million euros or 3 percent of global annual revenue. ChatGPT has also been designated a very large online search engine under the Digital Services Act, which means OpenAI must assess systemic risks by January. For Meta, the Digital Markets Act adds another layer because Muse would cross data from Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.

Apple is being more blunt. It says EU rules would force it to give any virtual assistant direct access to private data and control over installed apps, so Siri AI isn’t on iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch there, only on Mac and Vision Pro. The European Commission says the decision was Apple’s alone and that nothing in the DMA stops new products from launching in the bloc. Meanwhile, OpenAI’s own Peter Steinberger is in the room, which makes the whole thing feel a bit like Europe is being asked to wait for the future while the people building it are already standing on stage.