Apple is reportedly working on an AI-powered search tool that would initially be integrated with Siri and eventually added to the Safari browser and Spotlight, a search app launched from the iPhone home screen. Known internally as World Knowledge Answers, it is expected to debut next spring, possibly with help from Google, which is said to have built a model to power Apple’s AI search. Google is a longtime Apple partner, providing the default search engine for Apple devices. The move is intended to make Apple’s search offerings more competitive with products from OpenAI and Perplexity.

Apple is working with Google to test and evaluate its new search experience, which “will include an interface that makes use of text, photos, video and local points of interest,” according to Bloomberg, describing it as an “answer engine” that will be “part of a long-delayed overhaul to Siri.”

The iPhone maker has not officially commented on the project.

“The idea is to make Siri and Apple’s operating systems a place where users can look up information from across the Internet — in a similar fashion to ChatGPT, AI Overviews in Google Search and a crop of new apps,” Bloomberg writes.

TechRadar says news of Google’s involvement comes as no surprise, “considering previous reports that Apple was interested in implementing Google’s Gemini AI model into Apple Intelligence.”

The AI search reports surfaced immediately following a favorable court ruling for Google in the antitrust lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice and a group of state attorneys general. A federal judge “ruled that Apple can maintain an arrangement that makes Google the default search engine on its devices — with minor tweaks,” Bloomberg says, noting the agreement “has generated roughly $20 billion a year in revenue for Apple, and investors were relieved to see it continue.”

TechRadar notes that while news of Apple’s AI search “sounds incredibly promising” it follows “the disappointing launch of Apple Intelligence nearly 12 months ago.”

The news comes as “Apple is gearing up for its biggest week of the year when it reveals the iPhone 17 on September 9,” TechRadar says, speculating Cupertino may have an AI surprise up its sleeve.