Apple is considering adding AI to Safari’s search capabilities, the company’s senior vice president of services Eddy Cue said during Google’s antitrust trial on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg.
Cue’s statement sent ripples through markets, with Google parent Alphabet’s stock falling 7.3% amid concerns that Apple might end its lucrative deal of making Google the default Safari search engine.
Apple is considering partnering with OpenAI, Anthropic, or Perplexity AI
Apple is “actively looking at” revamping Safari search to include AI, Cue said during testimony in the federal antitrust case against Google, according to Reuters. He indicated Apple may partner with OpenAI, Anthropic, or Perplexity AI to power AI-driven search results.
Searches on Safari decreased for the first time last month, Cue said. He attributed the change to users turning to AI instead.
Google claims the number of searches on its platform from Apple devices and platforms is holding steady.
Google in flux and on trial
Despite Apple’s plans to change Safari search being only internal and exploratory at this time, the information struck a blow to Google’s stock price at a bad time for the search engine giant.
SEE: Google’s DoJ Antitrust Trial: CEO Says Sharing Search Data Would Be ‘De Facto Divestiture’
Google pays Apple about $20 billion a year to make Google search the default result when a user types a search into Safari’s navigation bar, which is the primary browser on iPhones and other Apple devices. Reuters estimates about 36% of Google’s search advertising revenue comes from Safari.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said last month that Google may include its Gemini AI on new Apple phones in the future; although, since his statement was part of an antitrust trial, many things may change by the time Apple and Google finalize any such partnership.
In the latest trial, the federal court found Google had violated antitrust law and is now considering whether Google might have to spin off its ad service, browser, or search engine.
A change in the way default web searching works could shake up the ad industry, which Google search transformed. Meanwhile, OpenAI is considering inserting ads into ChatGPT answers.
