Apple shuts AI out: iOS apps just got more private

If you hate the idea of your information being used to train AI, you're going to love the minor but vital tweak Apple just made to the iOS App Store.

"You must clearly disclose where personal data will be shared with third parties, including with third-party AI," the company told app developers — adding that all apps must "obtain explicit permission before doing so."

The updated language — Apple's first guidance on third-party AI — is part of a document called App Review Guidelines. And lest the name fool you, the introduction makes clear that adhering to these guidelines is pretty much mandatory.

"We will reject apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line," Apple tells developers later in the guidelines. "What line, you ask? Well, as a Supreme Court Justice once said, 'I'll know it when I see it.' And we think that you will also know it when you cross it."

The update, which dropped last week, marks the first time that AI has even been mentioned in the guidelines. Apple under CEO Tim Cook has been highly skeptical about AI, slow to include AI features in Siri, and sometimes hesitant to even use the letters "AI"; Cook has preferred to use the similar term "machine learning" in past keynotes.

Sourcing data to train AI models has become one of the most legally contentious activities in Silicon Valley. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, filed a lawsuit in April against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

And even Apple, the AI laggard that is reportedly going to use Google Gemini to power Siri soon, isn't immune.

Last month saw two lawsuits alleging Apple has improperly used other people's work for its own AI training. In separate filings, two neuroscientists and two authors said Cook's company had used data from "shadow libraries," or pirated content available online.

While Apple's response remains to be seen, the legal landscape doesn't look all that promising for the company. AI giant Anthropic settled a class-action lawsuit over shadow library usage in September for $1.5 billion.

But at least Apple can now legitimately claim to be protecting its users from AI data-scraping within its apps.