Apple Working to Add AI Search Options to Safari

Apple is looking at reworking Safari to directly support AI-powered search services, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.

Apple Intelligence General Feature 2
Apple's senior vice president of services Eddy Cue today disclosed that Apple is "actively looking at" reshaping Safari around AI search as part of testimony in the lawsuit against Google from the U.S. Justice Department. The dispute centers on the $20 billion deal between Apple and Google that makes the latter the default search engine on Apple devices.

Cue said that searches on Safari dipped for the first time in April 2025—a change which he attributed to users switching to AI services. He added that he believes AI services such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude will eventually replace conventional search engines like Google. As a result, Apple will need to add them as options in Safari in the future. Cue said the company had already held discussions with Perplexity.

The AI options "probably won't be the default," Cue explained, but they will be added "to the list" of options. He said the services still need to improve further. He added:

You may not need an iPhone 10 years from now as crazy as it sounds. The only way you truly have true competition is when you have technology shifts. Technology shifts create these opportunities. AI is a new technology shift, and it's creating new opportunities for new entrants.

He said that AI services need to improve their search indexes, but, even if this does not happen quickly, users are still likely to switch rapidly because they have other compelling features that are "so much better." Large language models will continue to improve over time, giving users more reason to switch from traditional search to AI. "There's enough money now, enough large players, that I don't see how it doesn't happen," he said.

Nevertheless, Cue said he believes that Google should remain the default search option in Safari. He added that he lost sleep over the possibility of Apple losing the revenue share from the agreement between the two companies. The deal now includes Google Lens integration in Visual Intelligence.

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Top Rated Comments

Fuzzball84 Avatar
23 weeks ago
Everything and anything is revolving around AI. The blind march into AI continues

But what I hear from friends and family is that most feel uncomfortable about this obsession in the media and companies about AI.

In reality, the technology can be great and put to some good uses. But most of it is trash, and the risks to data security and privacy, or worse, can be huge.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Craiger Avatar
23 weeks ago
I recently turned off apple intelligence on my phone. I don’t miss it at all.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
richard4339 Avatar
23 weeks ago
Geez, enough with the AI already. We don't want it.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
coolfactor Avatar
23 weeks ago

I recently turned off apple intelligence on my phone. I don’t miss it at all.
You'll eventually come around, as I have. I felt for the longest time that services like ChatGPT couldn't possibly replace my carefully-crafted web searches, but I was wrong. Wrong.

While companies deploying LLM-based solutions need to be held to a high standard, there's no denying that using these services is the quickest way to get comprehensive info and answers from many sources at once.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Siliconguy Avatar
23 weeks ago

I will never understand this brand of contrarianism. Like I understand being skeptical of new technologies—I am too!—but sticking your head just means you're gonna get left behind. Why would you want to be the old man who doesn't have a cellphone and can't pay his bills online?
I pay bills online just fine without a cell phone. As I have a flip phone it's not an option anyway.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Fuzzball84 Avatar
23 weeks ago

I am the opposite. Used it over and over, and found some uses, but ended up just moving back to DDG and stopped using LLMs.

I guess I just don't use the internet like a lot of people. I hit a few bookmarked sites, read email, some news, and that's about it. Don't really do much searching or research.
Most technical research is done in journals anyhow, and being up to date on the latest advancements. Which requires focus, concentration, reliable sources. Not results spewed out by a LLM.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)