Apple is reportedly entertaining the idea of adding AI Assistants and search engines to its Safari browser. This is a big move, and one that could potentially undermine Google’s dominance in the field.
Word of Apple’s AI-driven intentions was made known by Eddy Cue,Sneior Vice President of Services at Apple, during his testimony in the US Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit against Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
Currently, the deal between the search engine and the company from Cupertino is that Google remains the defacto search engine on Safari. Unfortunately, the Alphabet-owned entity is currently embroiled in a lawsuit against the US Department of Justice (DOJ) over claims of advertising technology dominance.
Beyond the legal hellscape that the search engine is currently in, Cue acknowledges that AI has been making huge gains and to that end, he is exploring other AI-powered service providers that could be paired with Safari. Some options being considered include OpenAI, Perplexity AI Inc, and Anthropic PBC.
That said, Apple has supposedly already engaged in discussions with Perplexity AI. The company’s integration of OpenAI’s ChatGPT into iOS 18.2 was seen as an indicator of a partnership between the two companies. However, Cue expressed that Google should remain the default search engine in Safari, due to the revenue brought in by their agreement.
Manisha contributed to this article.
