Things are not looking good for Google. The company is in serious legal trouble, battling antitrust lawsuits from the U.S. Department of Justice. A big part of the case, filed in 2020, focuses on Google"s $20 billion-a-year deal with Apple to be the default search engine on Safari across iPhones, iPads, and Macs. The DOJ claims this deal is anticompetitive and helps Google keep its search monopoly. Last year, a judge ruled that Google did indeed maintain this monopoly illegally, and the case is now in a phase to decide on remedies. Now, Bloomberg reports that Apple is reportedly adding AI search engines to Safari, a move that could significantly undermine Google"s position.
Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, testified today in the remedy phase of the DOJ"s antitrust trial against Google. Cue made some revealing statements under oath, disclosing that Apple is "actively looking at" integrating AI-powered search engines into Safari. He attributed a recent, unprecedented dip in Safari search volume last month to people potentially using AI tools instead of traditional web search.
Cue expressed a strong belief that AI search providers such as OpenAI, Perplexity AI, and Anthropic will eventually replace standard search engines like Google. He stated that Apple plans to add these companies as search options within Safari sometime in the future. While he noted they would probably not be the default search engine initially because they still need improvements, particularly in their search indexes, he also thinks AI search offers features that are "so much better that people will switch" regardless.
Cue mentioned that Apple has already engaged in discussions with Perplexity. He also provided context regarding Apple"s choice of AI partners, noting that before selecting OpenAI"s ChatGPT for the on-device AI features in iOS 18 (announced last year), Apple conducted a sort of comparison against Google"s Gemini. Cue testified that Google"s proposed terms for Gemini at that time "had a lot of things Apple wouldn’t agree to and didn’t agree to with OpenAI." This previous decision to integrate OpenAI for Apple Intelligence, even before discussing AI search in Safari, was already seen as a notable partnership for OpenAI, a direct competitor to Google"s AI ambitions.
The legal pressure on Google and the potential fallout from the Apple default deal are massive threats. The government is pushing for remedies that could include breaking up parts of Google"s business. For instance, in the search case remedies phase, the Justice Department has suggested forcing Google to sell assets like its Chrome web browser.
On a related note, an OpenAI executive recently testified that OpenAI would be interested in buying Chrome if it were for sale, seeing it as a way to create an "AI first experience" directly in the browser.