Apple Looking to Transform Safari With AI Search

Apple is looking to integrate AI-powered search into its Safari web browser on desktop and mobile in what could be a major blow to Google, according to a report from Bloomberg on Wednesday. 

In testimony provided to the US Department of Justice in its lawsuit against Google, Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, said that the iPhone maker is “actively looking at” remaking Safari with the addition of AI search tools, likely with options including those from OpenAI, Perplexity and Anthropic. Cue noted that online searches dropped on Safari for the first time last month. 

Currently, Google is the default search platform on Safari and Apple devices. The Justice Department case earlier revealed that Google pays $18 billion a year to Apple to maintain its default online search position.

As generative AI changes how consumers gather information, thanks to its ability to quickly synthesize data from multiple sources in seconds, it’s making Google’s blue links seem antiquated.

Apple has already integrated OpenAI’s ChatGPT into its Siri assistant. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has said that Google’s Gemini will be coming to Siri later this year.

OpenAI declined to comment. Neither Apple, Google, Perplexity nor Anthropic immediately responded to requests for comment. 

Apple and Google have a history of making deals behind the scenes to ensure that neither encroaches on each other’s territory, a factor in the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuits, as in the case of their search arrangement. Google has also struck a similar deal with Galaxy phone maker Samsung. 

This arrangement brought in a healthy stream of revenue for Apple and gave Google access to Apple’s valuable customer base, from which it could extract data and against which it could sell advertising and e-commerce pitches. At one point, almost half of Google’s search traffic came from Apple devices. 

Google’s shares fell Wednesday following Cue’s testimony.