Apple’s Next Big AI Project May Be an ‘Answers’ Search Tool
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While Apple works feverishly to deliver the more personalized Siri that it promised for iOS 18, rumors have been swirling about where its broader AI ambitions may go beyond that.
We’ve previously heard reports that Apple has been considering an acquisition of Perplexity to aid in developing a search engine, and is partnering with AI giants like OpenAI and Anthropic to build more sophisticated large language models. Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, tacitly hinted at some of this during last week’s Q3 2025 earnings call when he said Apple was open to acquisitions that might help it improve in the AI space, although of course he stopped short of dropping any names.
It’s unclear whether any of these partnerships or acquisitions are being contemplated to help improve Siri, but there’s also more to AI than just a smarter voice-assisted chatbot. Apple is facing the potential loss of a multi-billion-dollar search deal with Google as a result of an antitrust case against the search giant, and many believe talks with Perplexity are part of its backup plan.
We’ve heard rumors and speculation for years that Apple was building a search engine, and while the consensus is still that Apple isn’t planning to go there, it’s also fair to say that the world is quickly moving beyond traditional Google-style web search.
Last year, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Search, pointing folks to its AI chatbot as a way to scour the web for real-time information. Many now believe this is the way ahead, as an AI assistant can give you more useful and curated results than a page full of web links.
That’s especially true when you’re searching for answers to questions, which is what a vast majority of Google searches are all about. It’s this area that AI companies are looking to address, and even some Apple executives have acknowledged that AI-based search is the future. Now, it appears that Apple plans to throw its hat in the ring with its own “ChatGPT-like search experience.”
At least, that’s what Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is hearing. In his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman says that Apple has stood up a new team in its AI division called “Answers, Knowledge, and Information.”
“This group, I’m told, is exploring a number of in-house AI services with the goal of creating a new ChatGPT-like search experience,” Gurman says.
Apple has reportedly pegged former Siri director Robby Walker to head up the new “Answers” team. While the beleaguered Siri project has been handed over to Mike Rockwell under Craig Federighi’s leadership, Walker and several other key Siri team members have been reassigned to handle these new AI initiatives.
While still in early stages, the team is building what it calls an “answer engine” — a system capable of crawling the web to respond to general-knowledge questions. A standalone app is currently under exploration, alongside new back-end infrastructure meant to power search capabilities in future versions of Siri, Spotlight and Safari.
Mark Gurman
The team is also entering a rapid expansion phase, with multiple job listings appearing on Apple’s careers site, hinting at the potential pervasiveness of these new tools throughout Apple’s operating systems. “Our work fuels intuitive information experiences across some of Apple’s most iconic products, including Siri, Spotlight, Safari, Messages, Lookup, and more,” one of the listings reads.
To be clear, an “Answers” searchbot is likely still years away. We’ll probably see a fully conversational Siri before “Answers” is anywhere near ready, but it also shouldn’t be surprising that Apple wants to work in this direction. When it unveiled Apple Intelligence during its 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), the company candidly admitted that it needed to partner with OpenAI because ChatGPT was far better at handling “world knowledge.”
That’s not a gap that Apple is likely comfortable living with in the long term, and there’s a good chance that “Answer” is ultimately designed to eliminate any reliance on third-party chatbot “extensions’ within Apple Intelligence. That doesn’t mean integration with ChatGPT will go away — antitrust pressure alone will likely keep that around, and Google Gemini support is likely also still in the works. Still, Apple would prefer that its customers only use those tools if they choose to, not because they have no other options.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
