Apple working on AI-powered web search tool for Siri to rival OpenAI, Perplexity

In stark competition with OpenAI and Perplexity AI, Apple is planning to launch its own artificial intelligence-powered web search tool next year. The company is working on a new system, dubbed internally as World Knowledge Answers that will be integrated into the Siri voice assistant. Apple also has plans to add the technology to its Safari web browser and Spotlight, which is used to search from the iPhone home screen.

Described by some executives as an “answer engine,” Apple is aiming to release the service in the spring next year as part of a long-delayed overhaul to Siri.

The idea is to make Siri and Apple’s operating systems a place where users can look up information from across the internet — something similar to ChatGPT, AI Overviews in Google Search and a crop of new apps. The approach will rely on large language models, or LLMs, a key technology underpinning generative AI.

Apple’s new search experience will include an interface that makes use of text, photos, video and local points of interest, according to the source. It also will offer an AI-powered summarization system designed to make results more quickly digestible and more accurate than what’s offered by the current Siri.

It is also rumoured that the underlying technology enabling the new Siri could come in part from Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Apple’s longtime partner in internet search. The companies have reportedly reached a formal agreement this week for Apple to evaluate and test a Google-developed AI model to help power the voice assistant.