• by Laurie Sullivan , Yesterday

Apple is working on a new AI system the company plans to market as an “answer engine,” calling it World Knowledge Answers.

Spring 2026 is the scheduled rollout, as it will become part of the long-delayed overhaul to Siri.

The engine will integrate into Apple's Siri voice assistant -- and possibly into its Safari web browser and Spotlight that is used to search from the iPhone Home Screen, Bloomberg reports, citing people with knowledge of the plan.

The AI multimodal underlying technology for the new Siri could come in part from Google, Apple’s longtime partner in internet search. The companies reached a formal agreement this week for Apple to evaluate and test a Google-developed AI model to help power the voice assistant, according to the report.

It's a far cry from 2015 when Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak -- who is credited for creating the first personal computer -- said he was never a big fan of search engines and ecommerce. If he had been, Apple engineers would have built a search engine in its early days for its computers, and much later, for its mobile phones.

Apple's latest idea is to rely on large language models (LLMs) to make Siri and its operating systems a place where users can go to a tool like ChatGPT and AI Overviews, and look up information from across the internet and apps.

The digital assistant will have the ability to tap into user personal data and onscreen content to fulfill queries, and to precisely navigate users’ devices using voice.

The technology overhaul for Siri — Linwood and LLM Siri — lays the groundwork for the AI search feature, and a complex plan relies on user data to train its large language models (LLMs).

In the past, Apple solely used synthetic data to train its AI engine, but in April it announced the method was ineffective, the company explained in a blog post. In preparation for this change, Apple moved to synthetic data and compares it with data of users who opt in.

Several teams are working on the search initiative, including the Siri group under Craig Federighi, Apple’s head of software engineering, Bloomberg reports. He also oversees Siri’s strategy. The AI division led by John Giannandrea and Apple’s services unit run by Cue. Mike Rockwell, the creator of the Vision Pro headset, are all involved.