Apple is planning to launch its own artificial intelligence (AI)-powered web search tool next year, stepping up competition with OpenAI and Perplexity AI.
The company is working on a new system, dubbed internally as World Knowledge Answers, that will be integrated into the Siri voice assistant, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. Apple has also discussed eventually adding the technology to its Safari web browser and Spotlight, which is used to search from the iPhone home screen.
Apple is aiming to release the service, described by some executives as an “answer engine,” in the spring as part of a long-delayed overhaul to Siri, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the plans have not been announced.
The idea is to make Siri and Apple’s operating systems a place where users can look up information from across the Internet – in a similar fashion to ChatGPT, AI Overviews in Google Search and a crop of new apps. The approach will rely on large language models, or LLMs, a key technology underpinning generative AI.
The underlying technology enabling the new Siri could come in part from Alphabet’s Google, Apple’s longtime partner in Internet search. The companies reached a formal agreement this week for Apple to evaluate and test a Google-developed AI model to help power the voice assistant, the sources said.
Apple’s new search experience will include an interface that makes use of text, photos, video and local points of interest, according to the sources. It will also offer an AI-powered summarisation system designed to make results more quickly digestible and more accurate than what’s offered by the current Siri.
Apple shares climbed to a session high on Wednesday after Bloomberg News reported on the search plan, adding to earlier gains. The stock rose 3.8% to US$238.47 at the close in New York, marking the biggest one-day increase in almost a month.
The latest development comes the same week a US judge ruled that Apple can maintain an arrangement that makes Google the default search engine on its devices – with minor tweaks. That agreement has generated roughly US$20 billion a year in revenue for Apple, and investors were relieved to see it continue. But a pivot to AI-based search remains in motion.
