- Apple would have sought to make AI tools the default search option for Safari
- Google is the current Safari default search engine in a 20b agreement
- Apple considers AI as perhaps more attractive for users for research purposes
Apple flirts with the idea of making AI tools the default search option for Safari instead of Google. As reported for the first time by Bloomberg, Apple’s head of services, Eddy Cue, revealed during the testimony this week in the antitrust trial of the American Ministry of Justice against Google that Apple “actively considers” to provide search engines supplied by AI to replace Google.
Apple and Google currently have a mutually beneficial and lucrative affair where Google pays Apple about $ 20 billion per year to remain the default search engine on all Apple devices. This agreement was part of the antitrust control, which led to the revelation of Apple’s interest in alternatives.
Eddy Cue mentioned several major Chatbot AI developers as new potential research partners for Apple, notably Openai, Perplexity, Anthropic and Xai. CUE told court that research on Safari actually decreased last month for the first time in recent memory, and his theory is that people are starting to exchange standard search engines for AI tools. Instead of typing “How does Wi-Fi work?” In a search bar, users ask Chatgpt to explain it as there are five years.
Cue was not really subtle by suggesting that Apple thinks that traditional research could be going out. “The only way you really have real competition is when you have technological changes,” he said. “AI is a new change in technology, and it creates new opportunities for new entrants.”
Apple API search
Apple has already plunged its toes into AI research, connecting Siri to Chatgpt and pretending to do the same with Google Gemini. Cue also noted that Apple is open to the addition of several IA research options directly in Safari, although no decision concerning a new defect has been mentioned.
AI research tools have good points, but they are delivered with blatant weaknesses. In particular, they can respond with incomplete, inaccurate or downright hallucinatory information. The question of whether these problems are worth the advantages of AI research tools are questionable, but Apple clearly thinks that this could be an interesting change to make. After all, if people go from Google to AI tools because they are easier, and despite their mistakes, it is the management that any business would like to follow.
And there is a reason why Google was willing to pay so much for its status on Apple devices. This user base is crucial for its research domination. Just suggest that this might not be the case forever sent Google shares to lower almost 9% after the cue testimony. Apple actions have also slipped, but much more modestly.
None of this can matter if Apple decides that it has a good thing with Google as a business and makes Gemini its default search tool with a similar offer. And although AI still cannot be reliable to write a university test or navigate the DMV website, this already reshapes the way we expect to interact with the information. This means that the tools we use to access this information will evolve in a way that they have not since perhaps the general adoption of mobile versions of websites.
