Apple is internally engaged on a “ChatGPT-like search expertise” to immediately generate solutions for customers, in line with a report from Bloomberg on Sunday.
The Solutions, Information and Info crew, or AKI, is a crew inside Apple trying to make inside AI merchandise for its units. The corporate is reportedly constructing an “reply engine” — an AI-powered service that pulls from info on-line to reply normal queries. It is also doable {that a} separate app could be developed. This AI search may energy Siri, Highlight and Safari.
A consultant for Apple did not instantly reply to a request for remark.
With firms like Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI all investing billions in AI improvement, Apple has notably been absent from the race. As a substitute of dashing to construct AI fashions that might energy the following era of Siri, Apple opted to partner with OpenAI and leverage its expertise.
With the launch of the iPhone 16, Apple launched Apple Intelligence, AI on the iPhone that might help in textual content era, photograph enhancing and summarization. The implementation, nonetheless, felt half-baked to many, and the rollout was slow.
Apple’s place within the AI race
Studies surfaced earlier this 12 months that Apple was looking to purchase Perplexity, an AI firm that is taking over Google with an AI-powered search engine. Including Perplexity to Apple’s portfolio will surely assist propel the corporate within the AI race. It might additionally reduce its reliance on Google.
Presently, Apple has a profitable $20 billion per year deal with Google to permit it to be the default search engine on Apple units. That is additionally why Apple hasn’t constructed its personal competing search engine — though, Apple argues that even when the deal did not exist, we will not assume it’d have made a competing search engine.
That deal is now on shaky floor after the Division of Justice’s antitrust division sued Google and gained, declaring the corporate is sustaining an illegal monopoly in online search. As a choose weighs treatments on this case, Apple has been barred from participating in the case, which means Apple may lose $12.5 billion in annual revenue if the DOJ forces how Google makes these offers.
Creating a brand new AI-powered search engine inside Apple would possibly unwind the strands between Google and the iPhone maker, however may result in extra competitors within the on-line search and AI markets.
