Apple is planning to give Siri a major upgrade with an AI-powered web search tool designed to rival ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.
World Knowledge Answers
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is internally calling the project World Knowledge Answers. The system would allow Siri to summarize searches with text, images, videos, and other multimedia elements.
The plan is to launch the tool within Siri first, before potentially expanding it to Safari and Spotlight, the built-in iPhone search function.
Apple is reportedly testing a Google-developed model that runs on Apple’s own Private Cloud Compute servers. While the tool won’t carry Google or Gemini branding, it will rely on Google’s technology behind the scenes. Apple and Google already have a long-standing partnership, with Google paying Apple around $20 billion annually to remain the default search engine on Apple devices.
Earlier this week, a U.S. judge ruled that Google’s deal with Apple can continue under certain conditions.
Exploring Other Options
Apple also explored working with Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI models, but reportedly rejected its proposal after Anthropic requested $1.5 billion a year. Apple has not disclosed the financial terms of its arrangement with Google.
While a standalone Apple chatbot has been considered, the company is currently focused on enhancing its existing tools with AI rather than competing directly with ChatGPT in the near term.
Apple’s new AI initiative comes just ahead of its iPhone 17 launch event on September 9, where the company is expected to debut four new smartphones, including the first iPhone with the Air branding.\
What The Author Thinks
Apple’s decision to lean on Google’s AI models while keeping branding in-house shows a cautious but practical approach. The company knows Siri lags far behind competitors, but rushing out an Apple-branded chatbot could backfire if it stumbles. Apple’s real advantage has always been trust — people assume their devices protect privacy. If Apple can fuse strong AI performance with that reputation, it won’t matter whether the tech runs on Google’s backbone. Users will see it as Apple’s AI — and that could be the winning formula.
Featured image credit: omid armin via Unsplash
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