The Blubber

Apple plans to add AI-powered search providers to Safari on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, according to Bloomberg. In court testimony today, Apple SVP Eddy Cue said, “we will add them to the list — they probably won’t be the default,” referring to companies like Perplexity and Anthropic.

Cue also revealed that Safari searches declined for the first time ever in April, indicating that users may be turning to AI tools as alternative ways to access information.

Apple currently earns around $20 billion annually from its search deal with Google, which gives it a share of ad revenue from Safari searches. A drop in usage would hurt Apple financially, and the default search deal itself is under scrutiny due to an ongoing antitrust case against Google.

Ironically, Cue’s comments came during testimony in the very case that could threaten Apple’s longstanding agreement with Google, which makes it the default search engine across Apple devices.

At the same time, Apple is becoming more dependent on third-party AI to power key features. The company recently partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Siri, as part of the first phase of its broader Apple Intelligence rollout. OpenAI is reportedly offering access to ChatGPT at no cost in exchange for prominent placement, with the goal of converting users to paid subscribers.

However, for AI search engines to be included in Safari, Apple would likely seek revenue-sharing arrangements similar to what it has with Google. Cue also emphasized the need for AI providers to improve their general search capabilities and build richer indexes to truly compete.