Apple might build its own AI-powered answer engine

Apple has formed a new 'Answers, Knowledge and Information' or AKI team, potentially developing a rival chatbot to ChatGPT, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

When Apple Inc. introduced its artificial intelligence platform last year, it made one thing clear: There wouldn’t be a homegrown chatbot. Instead, the company teamed up with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into the Siri voice assistant, letting users access what it calls 'world knowledge' without building an in-house product.

Apple Intelligence currently doesn't offer search capabilities. The system focuses on summarising notifications, rewriting text, generating Genmoji images and cleaning up photos. According to Gurman's newsletter, it is expected to be able to translate messages and calls. But it lacks anything resembling the conversational, AI-powered search experiences available from ChatGPT or Google's Gemini.

Gurman in his Bloomberg's newsletter added, "Despite philosophical reservations among some Apple leaders, the company is clearly heading in that direction. Earlier this year, Apple quietly formed a new team called Answers, Knowledge and Information, or AKI. 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."

The AKI team is reportedly led by Robby Walker, a senior director reporting to AI chief John Giannandrea. Gurman also stated that while still in early stages, the team is building what it calls an 'answer engine', a system expected to be capable of digging the web to respond to general knowledge questions. 

Gurman also notes that Apple is advertising for jobs with this team, specifically looking for applicants who have experience with search algorithms and engine development.