Apple wants to rewire search with AI — and that may help cut the Google cord

When Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled Apple Intelligence at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, it offered a glimpse into a future where AI could solve many of the problems users have historically turned to search for.

As Apple put it, its generative AI plans have been built to serve as a “personal intelligence system” for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users by combining “the power of generative models with personal context to deliver intelligence that’s incredibly useful and relevant.”

In other words, Apple hopes that AI can intelligently answer queries and support user needs by understanding what actually matters to users.

Part of Apple Intelligence also involves a revamped Siri, Apple’s chatbot that users can supercharge by offering permission to connect to OpenAI’s industry-leading technology, ChatGPT.

Though Siri has been a weak spot for Apple over the years, the company hopes that “richer language-understanding capabilities” capable of delivering “more natural, more contextually relevant, and more personal responses” will make it as useful as search.

Apple isn’t alone in this thinking. Across Silicon Valley, those building AI models have been busy presenting a future in which chatbots will serve as “agents” that meet users’ needs. The ability to address search queries should be a principal function of these AI agents.

It’s why when ChatGPT first emerged, Google was reported to have issued a “code red.” The idea that their powerful search engine could lose traffic to a generative AI chatbot that seemingly had the answers to all the things they’d normally type into Google was clearly a huge worry.

Of course, it’s not clear what Apple’s future relationship with Google will look like just yet. Monday’s ruling did not include any remedies.

It’s unlikely to find a deal as lucrative as the one it got with Google on search anytime soon, either. ChatGPT maker OpenAI is not paying Apple to partner on AI.

Still, Apple’s bet on AI gives it a chance to present consumers with an alternative way to search the internet. It’ll hope they find it as useful as Google.