Apple is quietly ramping up efforts to develop a homegrown AI chatbot to compete with ChatGPT, as it prepares for the launch of its next major iPhone model. According to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company has established a dedicated internal group called “Answers, Knowledge, and Information” (AKI), aimed at building a simplified chatbot that helps users efficiently access global knowledge. This initiative is being led by Robby Walker, a former Siri executive, under the oversight of John Giannandrea, Apple’s Senior VP of Machine Learning and AI Strategy.
While Apple has previously partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Siri, this new effort marks a clear shift toward developing an in-house alternative. The move reflects Apple’s broader strategy to deepen its control over core AI functions and move beyond the limitations of third-party platforms.
“The AKI team’s main objective is to build a new kind of search experience that mirrors what users currently expect from chatbots like ChatGPT or Perplexity AI,” the report states.
Interestingly, this push comes after senior Apple executives had previously downplayed the need for a standalone chatbot. Yet with growing competition and user expectations, Apple appears to be evolving its Apple Intelligence framework, which so far has offered tools like Genmoji, Notification Summaries, and writing suggestions. Reception to Apple Intelligence has been lukewarm, and a long-delayed Siri upgrade has further dampened enthusiasm.
Simultaneously, Apple is progressing with its hardware roadmap. The iPhone 17 Pro, reportedly in development, was recently seen being tested in the wild in San Francisco, enclosed in a case to conceal its final design. This indicates that Apple is on schedule for a major product cycle.
However, Apple is also contending with internal challenges. The report notes that Apple has lost four AI researchers to Meta within a month, raising concerns about retention and morale within the company’s foundation models team, which is tasked with building its generative AI systems.
With the formation of the AKI team and its renewed focus on AI, Apple is positioning itself to not only fill gaps in its current offerings but also potentially redefine search on iPhones in the near future.