Apple’s Stock Price Falls After Exec Says It Is Considering Injecting Safari With AI

On Wednesday, Apple’s elder vice president of services, Eddy Cue, said that the institution is “actively looking at” bringing AI hunt options to its Safari web browser. Cue besides said helium believes that AI hunt engines volition yet regenerate modular hunt engines similar Google. Cue’s comments came arsenic helium testified successful the remedies signifier of Google’s antitrust proceedings successful Washington.

The Apple enforcement besides shared that the fig of Google searches made connected Safari decreased for the archetypal clip ever this year. He attributed the alteration to the emergence of AI hunt engines. “That has ne'er happened successful 22 years,” helium emphasized. (Safari was released successful aboriginal 2003.) While Cue says that AI hunt exertion isn’t acceptable to beryllium rolled retired connected Safari (“To date, they’re conscionable not bully enough”), helium did accidental that the institution has already had conversations with OpenAI, Perplexity, and Anthropic.

Last August, Apple announced a concern with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to immoderate of its products, but Cue says helium wanted to “make definite we person the capableness to power if we person to,” successful lawsuit different institution distinguishes itself arsenic a person successful AI search.

Share prices of some Alphabet and Apple fell—Alphabet’s by astir 8% and Apple’s by astir 2%—after Bloomberg reported connected Cue’s testimony.

Executives from a scope of tech companies—including Yahoo, Microsoft, and OpenAI—are expected to attest during the remedies signifier of this trial, which kicked disconnected past month. Apple’s grounds is peculiarly applicable to Google’s destiny due to the fact that the hunt institution pays Apple astir $20 cardinal a twelvemonth to beryllium the default hunt motor connected Safari. Under this statement with Google, Apple receives a information of Google’s advertisement gross from searches connected Safari. During his grounds connected Wednesday, Cue said he’s “lost a batch of sleep” implicit the thought of losing the gross share.

Google is presently the suspect successful 2 abstracted antitrust suits filed by the Department of Justice. Today’s grounds was portion of the proceedings that emerged from the Justice Department’s 2020 suit against Google. That suit alleges that Google illegally maintained a monopoly connected hunt and hunt advertizing markets. A cardinal statement successful the DOJ’s lawsuit was that the exclusivity agreements Google struck with definite level providers (like Apple) to go the default browser connected their tools were illegally monopolistic.

Last August, Judge Amit P. Mehta of the US District Court of the District of Washington, DC, ruled against Google successful the trial. While Google has said it plans to entreaty the verdict, that enactment volition person to hold until the remedies signifier of the proceedings is complete.

Separately, a 2023 suit filed by the DOJ against Google argues that the hunt elephantine illegally monopolized the integer advertisement tech market. Last month, Google was recovered blameworthy of 2 of the 3 charges brought against it. Google besides plans to entreaty this ruling.