Apple (AAPL) To Explore Adding AI Search to Safari Browser
Apple (AAPL) is reportedly exploring adding AI search to its Safari web browser, according to Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services. Cue spoke about this development during his Wednesday testimony in the US Justice Department’s lawsuit against Alphabet Inc. Apple and Google are weighing an estimated $20 billion-a-year deal that makes Google the default offering for queries in Apple’s included browser.
Right now, Apple offers OpenAI’s ChatGPT as an option in Siri. The company is expected to add Gemini, Google’s AI search product, later this year as part of the Apple-Google deal.
Apple's Future Search Engine Plans
Apple’s senior VP of services also named AI search providers, including OpenAI, Perplexity AI Inc., and Anthropic PBC, as the future of standard search engines that consumers use daily. Cue believes Apple will add those players as options in Safari in the future. “We will add them to the list — they probably won’t be the default,” he said, specifically mentioning Perplexity AI. “Prior to AI, my feeling around this was, none of the others were valid choices,” Cue said. “I think today there is much greater potential because there are new entrants attacking the problem in a different way.”
While Apple (AAPL) stock hasn’t fluctuated too much on Wednesday, Alphabet (GOOGL) shares took a strong hit. At press time, GOOGL is down over 7%. While Cue said Apple won’t replace Google as its default option, out of fear of losing the revenue its deal generates, he said he believes AI search apps will eventually replace standard search engines. Google has already released its AI Overviews, generative AI-based responses to user queries, in standard Google Search. The company is currently testing its AI Mode, which more closely resembles apps like ChatGPT search and Perplexity.
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