How to Win Friends and Influence People: Warn Them. Then …. Well, What?
May 15, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
BAIT (big AI tech) companies take a dim view of any government that does not get with the techno-libertarian power program. I wonder is the information in “Apple Warns EU Against Forcing Google to Open Android to AI Rivals” might be poorly received in Western Europe.
Two BAIT leadership people take comments after their presentation about smart software, mobile devices, and user privacy. Thanks, Midjourney. Good enough.
The 9 to 5 Mac story asserts by quoting Reuters (the trust outfit):
“The DMs (draft measures) raise urgent and serious concerns. ?If ?confirmed, they would create profound risks for user privacy, security, and safety as well as device integrity and performance,” Apple said in its submission. “Those risks are especially acute in the context of rapidly evolving ?AI systems whose ?capabilities, behaviors, ?and threat vectors remain unpredictable as we are now seeing time and again,” it said.
I like the “profound risks,” not just plain vanilla risks. I like the reference to “privacy, security, and safety.” The “device integrity” comment is interesting. I wonder if Apple’s wizards have looked into the capabilities of companies providing specialized services that enable access to mobile devices.
The write up points out:
Apple also reportedly argued that the European Commission is trying to redesign Android based on “less than three months of work,” replacing decisions made by Google’s own engineers over years of developing the operating system.
I am not interested in the back-and-forth that’s been going on between some BAIT outfits and the EU. My perspective is that the attitude of the BAIT companies is that governments like the EU are lost in space, indifferent to the needs of the commercial enterprises that perceive themselves as more important than nation states, and essentially toothless. Sure, the EU fines BAIT outfits, but how much cash changes hands. What happens is that flocks of legal eagles descend, and bureaucracy increases friction. The legal machine coughs and groans like Jack Benny’s recalcitrant Maxwell automobile.
What is the impact of the BAIT push back? Will the EU recognize their shortcomings? Will the elected officials don smart glasses to reveal what their perceptual blind spots distort? Will the EU apologize to the BAIT companies and accept guidance from bright BAIT workers?
My view is:
- Push back from the EU itself will increase. Elon Musk is unlikely to get a warm reception from the J3 unit of the French judiciary. Other executives may find themselves as fellow travelers with Mr. Musk
- European commercial and non-governmental organizations will continue to seek non-US options for certain technologies. The shift is modest in my opinion but going forward the “find an option” thinking will ramp up. The more BAIT outfits push; greater momentum to shift becomes evident
- Individual entrepreneurs are likely to look for ways to avoid stumbling into the BAIT embrace and control approach to technology.
I acknowledge that I may be wrong. I am reasonably confident that BAIT companies supercharged with the Silicon Valley dream of owning a market are unlikely to change. But governments, even ones perceived as weak or just plain wacky, can shut down online services. High profile executives can be put in prison or sit in green and gray rooms waiting to find out when a trial will take place.
Net net: The fact that Apple supports Google communicates a message to me. I think that there will be some in the European Union who see this backpatting is a less than “How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”
Stephen E Arnold, May 15, 2026
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