Apple’s Secret AI Move? iPhone Maker Set To Build ChatGPT and Gemini Rival

Apple forms an ‘AKI’ team to develop an answer engine that could reshape Siri’s future — and finally close the AI search gap.

Apple is all set to make a big tech shift by building its AI-powered answer engine. According to reports by Bloomberg, Apple has formed a team called Answers, Knowledge and Information (AKI) to take on conversational AI.

The AKI team, led by Robby Walker, who reports directly to AI chief John Giannandrea, is working on crafting an advanced search experience that could finally give Siri a much-needed brain upgrade.

Last year, Apple launched its Apple Intelligence platform without a homegrown chatbot. Instead, the company tapped OpenAI to bring ChatGPT into Siri, offering users access to what it called ‘world knowledge’ without building a chatbot in-house.

What Apple Intelligence Can — and Can’t — Do

Today, Apple Intelligence can summarize notifications, rewrite messages, generate Genmojis, clean up photos, and soon, translate calls. It’s smart — but not quite conversational. Additionally, as reported by MobileAppDaily, Apple’s iOS 26 will have a visual search feature that lets users highlight objects in screenshots to find similar items online, yet there’s still no native, fully conversational AI search. For now, even basic questions often get passed off to ChatGPT — via a limited interface.

While Apple still pockets around $20 billion annually from Google to keep its search engine the default, the AKI team’s efforts hint at a future where that dependence might be reduced — or replaced.

Apple’s Silent Race toward AI Independence

If successful, Apple’s answer engine could finally put Siri back in the light, as its efficiency has long been questioned and compared to other AI chatbots. Moreover, it would mean that Apple is no longer just integrating AI tools, but shaping how they’re used.

According to MobileAppDaily’s news last week, CEO Tim Cook recently confirmed that Apple is accelerating investments and acquisitions in AI, aiming to regain ground in an increasingly crowded space. It’s early, but one thing’s clear: Apple’s AI playbook may soon have an answer for everything.