Apple is internally working on a “ChatGPT-like search experience” to instantly generate answers for users, according to a report from Bloomberg on Sunday.
The Answers, Knowledge and Information team, or AKI, is a team within Apple looking to make internal AI products for its devices. The company is reportedly building an “answer engine” — an AI-powered service that pulls from information online to answer general queries. It’s also possible that a separate app might be developed. This AI search could power Siri, Spotlight and Safari.
A representative for Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
With companies like Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI all investing billions in AI development, Apple has notably been absent from the race. Instead of rushing to build AI models that could power the next generation of Siri, Apple opted to partner with OpenAI and leverage its technology.
With the launch of the iPhone 16, Apple introduced Apple Intelligence, AI on the iPhone that could assist in text generation, photo editing and summarization. The implementation, however, felt half-baked to many, and the rollout was slow.
Apple’s place in the AI race
Reports surfaced earlier this year that Apple was looking to purchase Perplexity, an AI company that’s taking on Google with an AI-powered search engine. Adding Perplexity to Apple’s portfolio would certainly help propel the company in the AI race. It would also lessen its reliance on Google.
Currently, Apple has a lucrative $20 billion per year deal with Google to allow it to be the default search engine on Apple devices. That’s also why Apple hasn’t built its own competing search engine — although, Apple argues that even if the deal didn’t exist, we can’t assume it’d have made a competing search engine.
That deal is now on shaky ground after the Department of Justice’s antitrust division sued Google and won, declaring the company is maintaining an illegal monopoly in online search. As a judge weighs remedies in this case, Apple has been barred from participating in the case, meaning Apple could lose $12.5 billion in annual revenue if the DOJ forces how Google makes these deals.
Creating a new AI-powered search engine within Apple might unwind the strands between Google and the iPhone maker, but could lead to more competition in the online search and AI markets.
