Apple Plans AI-Powered Web Search Tool To Rival OpenAI, Perplexity

Apple Inc. is planning to launch its own artificial intelligence-powered web search tool next year, stepping up competition with OpenAI and Perplexity AI Inc.

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 people 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 people, who asked not to be identified because the plans haven't 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 Inc.'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 people 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 people. It also will offer an AI-powered summarization system designed to make results more quickly digestible and more accurate than what's offered by the current Siri.

Spokespeople for Cupertino, California-based Apple and Mountain View, California-based Google declined to comment.

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 $238.47 at the close in New York, marking the biggest one-day increase in almost a month. 

Today's Siri can answer basic questions and provide facts about notable people, events, movies and sports, among other things. But it struggles with more complex queries and general-knowledge searches, instead often providing results from Google or ChatGPT. The voice assistant - groundbreaking when it was released in 2011 - has come to represent Apple's shortfalls in artificial intelligence.

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 $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.

Earlier this year, the company's services chief, Eddy Cue, told a courtroom that the number of Google search queries from Apple devices had dropped. "That has not happened in 20 years," he said. "We're starting to see what I believe are potential formidable competitors" to traditional search engines, he added, referring to AI-based options. 

Still, Tuesday's ruling preserving Apple's Google search deal could mean the company now has less urgency to develop homegrown services.

Siri Overhaul
As part of the long-promised Siri revamp, the digital assistant will be able to tap into personal data and on-screen content to better fulfill queries. It also will be able to more precisely navigate users' devices via voice. But now Apple is looking to go further with the update. A technology overhaul for Siri - dubbed Linwood and LLM Siri  - lays the groundwork for the AI search feature.

Craig Federighi, Apple's head of software engineering and the person overseeing the Siri strategy, hinted at the expanded set of changes in a recent all-hands meeting with employees. 

"The work we've done on this end-to-end revamp of Siri has given us the results we needed," he said. "This has put us in a position to not just deliver what we announced, but to deliver a much bigger upgrade than we envisioned."

A number of teams are working on the search initiative, including the Siri group under Federighi, the AI division led by John Giannandrea and Apple's services unit run by Cue. Mike Rockwell, the creator of the Vision Pro headset, is spearheading the effort under Federighi, while Robby Walker, an ex-Siri chief, is a key driver of the project under Giannandrea.

Apple aims to use a similar underlying search system for both the world knowledge feature and the already announced - but delayed - ability to more precisely search through a user's device. That tool should let people more quickly find specific images, files and other types of information. 

Though Apple is mainly looking to weave the new search system into existing features, it has also weighed the idea of building a chatbot-like app for search. Bloomberg reported last month that Apple is hiring staff for a new Answers, Knowledge and Information, or AKI, team, which is contributing to the search work.

The new Siri and search changes are currently slated for an upcoming software update known internally as Luck E. That corresponds to iOS 26.4, which is scheduled for release as early as March.

The initial version of iOS 26 will roll out this month as part of Apple's launch of new iPhones, its flagship product. The company is scheduled to announce the iPhone 17 lineup next Tuesday. 

Gemini and Anthropic
Apple is rebuilding Siri around three core components: a planner, the search systems for the web and devices, and a summarizer. The planner interprets voice or text input and decides how to respond; the search system scans the web or user data; and the summarizer pulls it all together into an answer.

In a major shift, Apple is considering powering the new Siri at least in part with third-party AI models, via a project it has called Glenwood. The current version of Siri runs entirely on Apple technology.

Apple has been recently leaning toward using a custom-built Google Gemini model for the summarizer, the people said. It would run on Apple's own Private Cloud Compute servers. The search engine giant already delivered the technology to Apple - and both companies are now collaborating on fine-tuning and testing it. 

Apple is considering using the Google model for the planner function as well, but it also continues to evaluate relying on Anthropic PBC's Claude or in-house models. Apple and Google also haven't ruled out eventually using the Gemini model to handle additional AI and search-related features. 

As of now, the iPhone maker plans to retain its own technology, called Apple Foundation Models, for searching user data. That should help the company preserve user privacy because customer information won't be processed with third-party technology.

Google wasn't initially the frontrunner on the Siri project. Anthropic had previously been in the lead for a deal, with Apple's internal evaluations indicating that Claude was ahead of Gemini in terms of quality.

But Anthropic demanded a high price for using its technology - more than $1.5 billion a year - and Google was open to more favorable financial terms, according to the people. That led Apple to ask Google to create a model to power Siri, as Bloomberg reported last month.

It's not the first time Apple and Google have held talks on an AI-related deal. Last year, Apple approached Google about integrating the Gemini chatbot into Siri but partnered with OpenAI instead. Both companies publicly said they were still working toward an agreement, but the feature has yet to be introduced to consumers.

New Look
Beyond the Siri and AI search upgrades in the first half of next year, Apple is planning a visual redesign of the voice assistant and a health AI agent to power a paid wellness subscription service in 2026. It's also working on an additional Siri update that will bring stronger conversational abilities to upcoming home devices.

It's all part of a comeback plan in AI, an area where the company struggled to keep pace with Silicon Valley rivals. After the new Siri was delayed this past spring, Apple shook up its executive ranks to start its turnaround bid. But the process will take time. When Apple unveils the iPhone 17 next week, it isn't expected to introduce major new AI features. 

Acquisition Strategy 
During the development of the new Siri, Cue and mergers-and-acquisitions chief Adrian Perica weighed a series of possible takeovers. The company discussed buying Perplexity and Mistral, Bloomberg first reported. Apple executives met with Mistral, a French AI startup, as recently as July.

Apple seriously evaluated Perplexity's technology over the summer, but is no longer actively weighing a bid. Instead, its own new search product will compete with the startup's offering. Apple remains on the hunt for deals, particularly to replenish talent.

The company is dealing with a wave of attrition. Apple's Foundation Models team, a group of several dozen academics, researchers and engineers, has been bleeding employees for weeks.

At the beginning of July, the department's creator and chief, Ruoming Pang, left for an over $200 million pay package at Meta Platforms Inc. Since then, roughly 10 members of the team have left, with most following Pang to the social networking giant.

Last week, three more key AI researchers departed: John Peebles and Nan Du are starting at OpenAI, while Meng Zhao is heading to Anthropic. More team members are actively interviewing for other jobs.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)