Apple Pauses Safari AI Overhaul to Prioritise Siri Transformation

Safari AI Project Put on Hold

Apple has pressed pause on its ambitious plans to reinvent Safari for the AI era. The company had been developing a next-generation browser featuring tools to assess document trustworthiness and cross-reference information across multiple sources, positioning it as a direct competitor to AI search offerings from OpenAI and Perplexity.

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is redirecting those engineering resources toward completing its long-awaited Siri overhaul, which has faced multiple delays since being announced at WWDC twenty twenty-four.

Two-Phase Siri Strategy

Apple is now pursuing a two-tier approach to its AI assistant. The first phase, expected in iOS twenty-six point four, will deliver contextual Siri capabilities including on-screen awareness, features the company originally promised in twenty twenty-four. Apple is preparing a demonstration of this technology for late February.

The second phase, codenamed Campos, represents a far more ambitious transformation. This will convert Siri into a full conversational chatbot comparable to ChatGPT and Google Gemini, capable of searching the web, generating images, helping with coding, and analysing uploaded files. This advanced version is targeted for iOS twenty-seven later in twenty twenty-six.

Google Partnership Anchors the Strategy

The entire strategy rests on a multi-year collaboration announced on January twelfth, in which Apple confirmed the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be built on Google's Gemini technology. Reports suggest Google is building a custom one point two trillion parameter Gemini model for Apple, far exceeding the capabilities of Apple's current in-house models.

Apple told media outlets that after thorough assessment, Google's technology offered the most robust foundation for Apple Foundation Models.

Leadership Changes and Scaled-Back Ambitions

The strategic pivot follows the departure of SVP of Machine Learning John Giannandrea and wider executive reshuffles within Apple's AI organisation. The World Knowledge Answers project, which aimed to embed standalone chatbot experiences into individual apps, has been scaled back in favour of a more cohesive approach centred on a deeply integrated Siri.

Gurman notes there is still time before WWDC in June for Safari AI work to potentially revive, though the company has also returned to the drawing board on AI health features.