Inside a fictional Apple AI lab, a developer works on the company’s new “Answers” system—part of its AKI initiative to build a ChatGPT-style answer engine for Siri. Image Source: ChatGPT-4o
Apple Builds ‘Answers’ Team to Develop ChatGPT-Style AI Experience
Key Takeaways:
Apple has formed a new team called Answers, Knowledge, and Information (AKI) to develop an internal ChatGPT-style answer engine.
The project aims to make Siri less reliant on Google Search by delivering direct, AI-generated responses.
The AKI team is led by Robby Walker, reporting to John Giannandrea, Apple’s SVP of Machine Learning and AI.
The initiative is still in early development, with engineering job listings pointing to backend and search engine infrastructure work.
AKI’s tools are expected to be integrated into Apple Intelligence and future versions of Siri, with a target release in spring 2026.
Apple Quietly Builds Answer Engine to Compete with ChatGPT
Apple has formed a new internal team—called Answers, Knowledge, and Information (AKI)—tasked with building a stripped-down ChatGPT-style search experience that could eventually replace or augment Siri’s current reliance on Google Search, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
The AKI team’s goal is to reduce Siri’s dependence on Google Search by allowing the voice assistant to deliver direct answers instead of simply pointing users to external links.
The project is still in its early stages, but Apple has already posted job listings for search engineers and is reportedly building out both a standalone app and supporting backend infrastructure. One role specifically references search algorithms and engine development, indicating that Apple may also be working on broader search capabilities.
Who’s Leading Apple’s AI Answer Effort
The AKI team is led by Robby Walker, a senior director at Apple who was reassigned to the role following delays in Siri’s development. He now reports to John Giannandrea, Apple’s senior vice president of Machine Learning and AI.
While exact product plans remain unclear, Apple’s goal is to build an answer engine that can crawl the web, aggregate relevant information, and deliver natural-language responses—similar to how ChatGPT or Gemini operates today.
Apple Intelligence Still in Early Stages
The AKI initiative arrives as part of Apple’s broader push to improve Apple Intelligence, its recently announced suite of AI tools. Early feedback on Apple’s AI rollout has been mixed, with many analysts calling the current feature set underwhelming compared to offerings from Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft.
Internally, Apple has reportedly struggled to integrate AI more deeply into its operating systems, and executives are dissatisfied with early results. The planned Siri AI upgrade, now targeting a spring 2026 release, may serve as the first major public integration of AKI’s work.
Q&A: Apple’s Answers Team and AI Direction
Q: What is Apple’s new AKI team?
A: The Answers, Knowledge, and Information (AKI) team is building an AI-powered answer engine to reduce Siri’s dependence on Google Search.
Q: Who is leading the project?
A: Robby Walker, a senior director at Apple who reports to John Giannandrea, SVP of Machine Learning and AI.
Q: What will the system do?
A: It aims to crawl the web and return ChatGPT-style responses instead of linking out to external search results.
Q: Will it be part of Siri?
A: Yes. If development stays on track, AKI’s system will likely be integrated into Siri and Apple Intelligence by spring 2026.
Q: Is Apple building its own search engine?
A: Possibly. Job listings suggest work on search algorithms and engine infrastructure, pointing to deeper ambitions beyond Siri.
What This Means
Apple is no longer sitting out the AI assistant race. With ChatGPT and Gemini reshaping how users interact with information, Apple’s decision to build its own answer engine reflects a shift from reactive to competitive. For the first time, it’s designing a system that doesn’t just redirect users—but answers them.
If successful, the AKI team could transform Siri from a fallback voice interface into a full-featured AI assistant with real-time reasoning, retrieval, and response capabilities. It’s a long-overdue move—and a clear signal that Apple intends not just to participate in the AI era, but to shape it on its own terms.
Editor’s Note: This article was created by Alicia Shapiro, CMO of AiNews.com, with writing, image, and idea-generation support from ChatGPT, an AI assistant. However, the final perspective and editorial choices are solely Alicia Shapiro’s. Special thanks to ChatGPT for assistance with research and editorial support in crafting this article.