The iPhone 18 Pro ships to 65 countries. Its AI is off in the EU and China

Apple put the iPhone 18 Pro on sale in more than 65 countries on 18 September, and sold it on its assistant. On the day that assistant arrived, it spoke one language, carried a beta label, and was switched off in the European Union and China. Apple published all three facts itself.

“We see Siri not as a separate chatbot, an unintegrated place you go and chitchat, but rather as an integral but conversational tool that you use in the moment, deeply integrated into your experience.”

— Craig Federighi, Apple

Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering at Apple

What Siri AI does, by Apple's own list:

• Personal context. It searches your messages, email and photos to find what you are asking about.
• Onscreen awareness. It answers questions and takes actions about whatever is on the screen in front of you.
• World knowledge. General answers on current topics, without leaving the assistant.
• Systemwide actions. Drafting an email, editing a photo, and reaching into third-party apps.

The dates sit close together. The Surprise and Shine event ran on 9 September. Apple Intelligence and Siri AI arrived with iOS 27 on Monday 14 September, rolling out in beta in English. French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish are promised for next month. The phones reached shops on 18 September, ten days ago.

Where the assistant is switched off

Siri AI is not available initially in the EU on iOS, iPadOS and watchOS. In China it is worse than that: Siri AI and the other new Apple Intelligence features are not available at all. Those two markets hold roughly 450 million and 1.4 billion people, close to a quarter of the planet between them, and China is on the list of countries where the phone went on sale. Apple is selling the hardware there with the headline software turned off.

Federighi's framing explains why that gap bites. An assistant designed as a separate chatbot can be replaced by a different chatbot, and a European buyer would shrug and install one. An assistant woven through the operating system cannot be swapped out, because what is missing is not an app but a layer. The deeper the integration, the more a regional switch removes.

Why the new phone is not the point

Apple Intelligence requires iOS 27 on an iPhone 16 or later, or an iPhone 15 Pro. The assistant arrives by software update on hardware many readers already carry, which the keynote had little reason to stress. The 18 Pro does carry Apple's newest foundation model on device, and Apple says the chip unlocks Siri AI in full, so the assistant may well run better there. Better is not the same as exclusive. The A20 Pro, the 48MP Fusion camera with variable aperture, the smaller Dynamic Island and the new vapour chamber are reasons to upgrade. The assistant on its own is not one of them.

Apple has form here, which is why the beta label deserves reading rather than skimming. The company agreed to pay $250m over a Siri that shipped 813 days after it was promised. The interesting date now is not the launch but October, when five more languages are due. If they arrive on time, the beta was a label. If they slip, it was a description.

This piece is informational and not a recommendation to buy any device or asset. Availability, languages and beta status are as Apple published them on 14 September and may change.