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yesterday

Apple Forms AKI Unit to Build In-House ChatGPT-Style Answer Engine

The team is recruiting search-engine engineers to develop a standalone AI app, backed by new infrastructure to power integrated updates to core Apple services in mid-2026.

Image
Siri | Image Credits: Apple
The Apple Fifth Avenue store in New York
Tim Cook and co are planning to launch Apple's 'AI engine.'

Overview

  • The AKI team, headed by Robby Walker, reports to AI chief John Giannandrea and is tasked with creating a web-crawling answer engine for general-knowledge queries.
  • The unit remains in early development and has posted job listings seeking engineers with expertise in search algorithms, web crawling and AI model integration.
  • Apple is weighing a standalone AI app alongside new backend infrastructure that could embed the answer engine into Siri, Spotlight and Safari.
  • The initiative aims to close gaps in Apple Intelligence, which currently defers complex queries to external services such as ChatGPT or Google.
  • Executives target a mid-2026 rollout to enhance Siri’s search functions and reduce reliance on Google’s default search deal under antitrust scrutiny.