Apple has fallen far behind in the competitive market of AI-powered chatbots, but it may have a plan for an in-house option that aligns with the company’s “not first, but best” philosophy. According to Mark GurmanBloomberg’sreported that Apple created a team titled “Answers, Knowledge and Information” this year, which is tasked with creating a “stripped-down rival to ChatGPT.”
The formation of this team represents a significant change in Apple’s previous stance on artificial AI when the company partnered with OpenAI in 2024 in order to infuse Siri ChatGPT rather than develop its own AI chatbot. Gurman reported today that the new Apple team is instead developing in-house AI services to support a “new ChatGPT-like search experience” which can crawl the internet to answer questions. Gurman’s sources claim that these new capabilities could be standalone apps, or support AI capabilities in Apple’s Siri and Spotlight. The team, led by Robby Walk, who previously managed Siri, has advertised job openings mentioning the desire for experience with search engines and algorithms. Apple has had some growing pains with artificial intelligence, beyond the Answers Knowledge and Information team. Apple announced earlier this year that it would delay the release date of the new and improved Siri. It added only that the program would be rolled out “in the coming year.” . However, Apple knows it needs to accelerate its Apple Intelligence to remain competitive. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said in the company’s latest third-quarter earnings report that the company is open to acquiring companies to accelerate its AI roadmap.
