Apple is flirting with the idea of making AI tools the default search option for Safari instead of Google. As first reported by Bloomberg, Apple’s services chief Eddy Cue revealed during testimony this week in the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust trial against Google that Apple is “actively looking at” bringing AI-powered search engines as a Google replacement.

Apple and Google currently have a mutually beneficial and lucrative deal where Google pays Apple around $20 billion a year to remain the default search engine across all Apple devices. That deal was part of the antitrust scrutiny, which led to the revelation of Apple's interest in alternatives.

Eddy Cue mentioned several major AI chatbot developers as potential new search partners for Apple, including OpenAI, Perplexity, Anthropic, and xAI. Cue told the court that searches on Safari actually declined last month for the first time in recent memory, and his theory is that people are starting to swap out standard search engines for AI tools. Instead of typing in “how does Wi-Fi work?” into a search bar, users are asking ChatGPT to explain it like they’re five.

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