Apple is working on AI browser – project status unclear
Apple's macOS, iPadOS, and iOS browser Safari has no significant AI features. However, according to a report, there is an internal project.
Safari icon on an iPad: Dare more AI at Apple?
(Image: Soumyabrata Roy / Shutterstock)
OpenAI Atlas, Perplexity Comet, Dia and various apps like Opera that have been expanded with corresponding features: The topic of AI browsers is fully on trend. So far, Apple – similar to with chatbots – has largely held back. But at least internally, such projects existed (and still exist).
As the financial news agency Bloomberg reports, the iPhone manufacturer actually had a "complete overhaul" of Safari planned for 2026. The aim was to make the browser "fit for the AI era." The problem: The plans are apparently on hold because Apple is currently working on the integration of Google Gemini as an internal language model.
Apple's World Knowledge in Safari
The intended functions were therefore far-reaching. For example, Safari should in future be able to evaluate the trustworthiness of documents and data found on the web. Cross-references to further sources, which then lead to a better overall view, were also planned. All of this is reminiscent of the aforementioned AI browsers, which allow interaction with content across open tabs or direct queries via chatbot input. All of this is completely missing from Safari so far, whether on Mac, iPhone, or iPad.
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According to Bloomberg, "some" of the work has currently been paused, apparently on the instructions of Apple's software chief Craig Federighi. However, there is still time until the WWDC 2026 developer conference in June, which is why a "revival" could also occur. The Safari project is part of the so-called World-Knowledge-Answers project, which was originally intended as a direct competitor to ChatGPT and Perplexity, but is based on Apple's at least currently inferior language models.
New AI Strategy with Google
Apple's current strategy now focuses on replacing its own Large Language Models (LLMs) with Google Gemini technology. This starts with the so-called Apple Foundation Models 10, which run on Apple's own AI servers. These are apparently not yet the current Gemini 3 Pro, but earlier versions. The idea is to finally improve Siri in iOS 26.4 contextually with this.
However, things are really set to take off with iOS 27 (and macOS 27 and iPadOS 27) in the fall. Siri is then supposed to become a "real" chatbot. According to Bloomberg, the technology will then be outsourced to Google, where a Gemini 3 Pro model set up for Apple – called Apple Foundation Models 11 – will run on the internet giant's cloud TPU servers. These are optimized for Gemini. Whether this will also be used to improve Safari remains unclear.
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