Tech giant Apple is finally jumping into the AI chatbot wars with both feet. The company is developing its own AI-powered “answer engine” to take on Google and ChatGPT-like systems, and they’re not messing around.
Led by the newly formed Answers, Knowledge and Information (AKI) team, Apple’s latest project aims to deliver instant, general-knowledge answers by pulling information straight from the web. The team is focusing on not first but best as their guiding development philosophy.
Apple’s AKI team is spearheading a new initiative to provide lightning-fast answers by directly extracting web-based information.
This isn’t just another half-baked AI experiment. Apple’s putting serious muscle behind this initiative, with former Siri developer Robby Walker heading up the AKI team formed in early 2025. They’re actively recruiting search algorithm experts and engine developers – because let’s face it, they’ve got some catching up to do in the AI race.
The timing is interesting, considering Apple’s previous AI offerings were met with mixed reviews. Remember Apple Intelligence on iPhone 16? Yeah, neither does anyone else. But this time feels different. They’re building what’s being described as a “stripped-down rival” to ChatGPT, focusing on precision rather than trying to be everything to everyone.
The real kicker? Apple’s planning to integrate this technology across their entire ecosystem. We’re talking Siri (which could finally become useful), Spotlight search, and Safari browser. With the AI market growth projected at 38.1% annually through 2030, the timing couldn’t be better for Apple’s ecosystem expansion. There’s even buzz about a standalone app. It’s classic Apple – taking their sweet time to enter a market, then leveraging their ecosystem advantage to make up for lost ground.
This move is a direct shot at Google’s search dominance, and the timing couldn’t be more perfect. Apple’s been paying Google billions to remain the default search engine on iOS devices, but now they’re ready to build their own solution. The company currently receives $20 billion annually from Google for default search rights. They even considered buying Perplexity, an AI search startup, but apparently decided to go it alone.
What sets Apple’s approach apart is their focus on privacy and curation. While Google crawls the entire web, Apple’s taking a more controlled approach. The engine uses similar natural language processing techniques as ChatGPT but with a narrower scope. It’s like they’re building a sports car instead of a monster truck – less powerful but more refined.
After watching from the sidelines while others rushed into AI, Apple’s finally making their move. And in typical Apple fashion, they’re doing it their way – controlled, integrated, and with an emphasis on user privacy.
Whether it’ll be enough to challenge Google’s dominance remains to be seen, but one thing’s clear: the AI search wars just got a lot more interesting.
