Apple is seriously considering adding search engines based on generative AI to Safari. Bots from OpenAI (ChatGPT) and Anthropic (Claude) can already search the internet in real time to provide their answers. As for Perplexity, online search is the startup's core business.
Traditional online search is losing ground in Safari
Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of services, revealed the company's intentions for Safari during the lawsuit between Google and the US government. The executive acknowledged that Safari's use for online searches had declined for the first time last month. He attributes this slowdown to the rise of AI tools, which are increasingly used by Internet users.
Eddy Cue believes that AI search engines will one day supplant traditional engines like Google. Rather than wait and be pushed into a corner, Apple plans to add them to its web browser, even if they won't necessarily become the default search options... anytime soon. Discussions are underway with Perplexity, he said. Safari already includes Google, as well as Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and Ecosia.
Apple is also attaching ChatGPT to Siri, and Gemini could join OpenAI's bot to overcome the assistant's glaring shortcomings. This testimony was produced during the trial that is to determine remedies to resolve Google's abuse of a dominant position in online search. One of these remedies is the elimination of Google's $20 billion payment to Apple to be the default search engine for Safari.
Of course, Eddy Cue remains committed to this agreement, which represents a large portion of the services business's revenue. He may have to give it up if the courts require it. The vice president more generally considered that the rise of AI represented a technological upheaval comparable to those that allow for real competition in the industry.
This also led him to say that we may no longer need an iPhone in ten years, "as crazy as that may seem." "The only way to have real competition is when there are technological shifts. These shifts create opportunities. Artificial intelligence is a new one, and it opens the door to new entrants." A roundabout way of defending the Google deal?
Source: Bloomberg
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