Eddy Cue, Apple’s head of services (which includes the search deal with Google), has spoken out in court about AI search as part of the competition case against Google.
Apple noted a decline in traditional search queries in the Safari browser for the first time last month. He attributes this to users increasingly turning to AI services. While Google used to be the only viable option, there are now new alternatives for internet searches with OpenAI, Perplexity, and Anthropic. Cue expects AI search to replace standard search in the future.
Google’s stock price fell 7.3% in response to the statement on Wednesday. In an initial, very brief response , Google stated that they were not seeing a decline in the number of searches, including on Apple devices, but rather continued growth.
The Google/Apple search deal is currently up for discussion, especially in light of the antitrust proceedings against Google in the US. Both Apple and Google are currently interested in continuing. Cue’s statement can therefore also be viewed as a strategic move to keep Google’s relevance in the search market from appearing too overwhelming.
What’s also clear, however, is that there has never been as much movement in internet search since Google’s rise to power over 15 years ago. For Google, the near future is all or nothing.
