Apple is going to add AI search providers to the Safari browser on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Bloomberg reports Apple SVP Eddy Cue made the disclosure in court testimony today, stating “we will add them to the list — they probably won’t be the default” in reference to providers like Perplexity and Anthropic.
Cue also revealed that the number of searches through Safari fell for the first time ever in April, suggesting users are looking to AI sources as alternative ways to find information.
Through its lucrative deal with Google and other search engines, Apple gets a cut of ad revenue from searches, so if usage falls, Apple makes less money. The default search engine deal is also under threat at the moment from an ongoing regulatory Google monopoly case.
Top comment by Tech_Enthusiast
This is concerning, regardless of how you feel about AI. With a classic Google (or any search engine) search, there was a clear indication that the results were being pulled from various sources with an implied expectation that the user should verify the information based on the legitimacy of the results (like how we were all taught to trust info from a .edu website more than a .net website). Users didn't always do that, but at least the UI made that clear.
Searching with AI alone presents info that's positioned in a way that sounds confidently correct, oftentimes without citing sources or providing an easy way to go to the source. This is going to lead to a lot of misinformation.
Apple currently rakes in about $20 billion annually from its share of revenue from Google searches made from Safari on Apple devices. Amusingly, Cue’s testimony today comes as part of evidence for the Alphabet monopoly case that could see its current Apple search deal — which sees Google as the default search option across Apple’s devices — torn up.
Apple is increasingly reliant on third-party companies for key artificial intelligence functionality in its devices.
We’ve already seen Apple partner with ChatGPT to extend Siri capabilities as part of the first wave of Apple Intelligence features. Under that deal, OpenAI is believed to be offering access to ChatGPT to Apple for free in exchange for prominent exposure, with potential to convert users to paid members.
But for placement in Safari, it seems like Apple would want to strike revenue-sharing deals equivalent to what it currently makes from Google. However, Cue also said he wants the AI providers to improve and be more competitive to Google in general queries, with richer search indexes.
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