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Posts tagged with "Perplexity"

The Curious Case of Apple and Perplexity→

Good post by Parker Ortolani, analyzing the pros and cons of a potential Perplexity acquisition by Apple:

According to Mark Gurman, Apple executives are in the early stages of mulling an acquisition of Perplexity. My initial reaction was “that wouldn’t work.” But I’ve taken some time to think through what it could look like if it were to come to fruition.

He gets to the core of the issue with this acquisition:

At the end of the day, Apple needs a technology company, not another product company. Perplexity is really good at, for lack of a better word, forking models. But their true speciality is in making great products, they’re amazing at packaging this technology. The reality is though, that Apple already knows how to do that. Of course, only if they can get out of their own way. That very issue is why I’m unsure the two companies would fit together. A company like Anthropic, a foundational AI lab that develops models from scratch is what Apple could stand to benefit from. That’s something that doesn’t just put them on more equal footing with Google, it’s something that also puts them on equal footing with OpenAI which is arguably the real threat.

While I’m not the biggest fan of Perplexity’s web scraping policies and its CEO’s remarks, it’s undeniable that the company has built a series of good consumer products, they’re fast at integrating the latest models from major AI vendors, and they’ve even dipped their toes in the custom model waters (with Sonar, an in-house model based on Llama). At first sight, I would agree with Ortolani and say that Apple would need Perplexity’s search engine and LLM integration talent more than the Perplexity app itself. So far, Apple has only integrated ChatGPT into its operating systems; Perplexity supports all the major LLMs currently in existence. If Apple wants to make the best computers for AI rather than being a bleeding-edge AI provider itself…well, that’s pretty much aligned with Perplexity’s software-focused goals.

However, I wonder if Perplexity’s work on its iOS voice assistant may have also played a role in these rumors. As I wrote a few months ago, Perplexity shipped a solid demo of what a deep LLM integration with core iOS services and frameworks could look like. What could Perplexity’s tech do when integrated with Siri, Spotlight, Safari, Music, or even third-party app entities in Shortcuts?

Or, look at it this way: if you’re Apple, would you spend $14 billion to buy an app and rebrand it as “Siri That Works” next year?

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Eddy Cue Causes a Stir for Google

2025 is shaping up to be the year of litigation for big tech. Apple’s been held in contempt and has an antitrust case on the horizon, Meta is in the midst of an antitrust trial, and Google is defending two antitrust lawsuits at once. Every one of these cases is a high-stakes challenge to the status quo, and collectively, they have the potential to reshape the tech industry for years to come.

The ultimate question for Google right now is whether it will be broken up. What will become of its ad tech business, and will it be forced to sell Chrome? That will be decided by the judges in those cases, but along the way, there are plenty of sideshow dramas worth keeping an eye on. This week, it was Google’s turn for a little litigation drama that was prompted not by a judge, but by none other than Apple’s SVP of Services Eddy Cue.

As part of Google’s search antitrust case, Cue testified yesterday that in April 2025, Google searches declined in Safari for the very first time. Cue’s testimony, which was reported on by Mark Gurman, Leah Nylen, and Stephanie Lai of Bloomberg, went on to explain that Apple is investigating AI search as an alternative to traditional search engines, noting that the company has had discussions with Perplexity.

Google’s stock immediately began to fall. By the close of trading, it was down around 7.5% and had caused enough concern internally at Google that the company felt compelled to release a one-paragraph statement on its blog, The Keyword, responding not to the testimony but to “press reports:”

Here’s our statement on this morning’s press reports about Search traffic.

We continue to see overall query growth in Search. That includes an increase in total queries coming from Apple’s devices and platforms. More generally, as we enhance Search with new features, people are seeing that Google Search is more useful for more of their queries — and they’re accessing it for new things and in new ways, whether from browsers or the Google app, using their voice or Google Lens. We’re excited to continue this innovation and look forward to sharing more at Google I/O.

It’s not news that Google Search is under threat from AI. However, Cue’s testimony under oath that Google searches in Safari are in decline is the first concrete evidence publicly shared that the threat is not just theoretical, which is a big deal.

Apple’s exploration of AI-based search is not terribly surprising either, but I do hope they cut a broader deal with Anthropic instead of Perplexity. I understand why Perplexity’s product is popular, but its CEO’s contempt for the open web and user privacy is something that I’d rather not see Apple perpetuate through a partnership.

What Siri Isn’t: Perplexity’s Voice Assistant and the Potential of LLMs Integrated with iOS

Perplexity's voice assistant for iOS.

Perplexity’s voice assistant for iOS.

You’ve probably heard that Perplexity – a company whose web scraping tactics I generally despise, and the only AI bot we still block at MacStories – has rolled out an iOS version of their voice assistant that integrates with several native features of the operating system. Here’s their promo video in case you missed it:

This is a very clever idea: while other major LLMs’ voice modes are limited to having a conversation with the chatbot (with the kind of quality and conversation flow that, frankly, annihilates Siri), Perplexity put a different spin on it: they used native Apple APIs and frameworks to make conversations more actionable (some may even say “agentic”) and integrated with the Apple apps you use every day. I’ve seen a lot of people calling Perplexity’s voice assistant “what Siri should be” or arguing that Apple should consider Perplexity as an acquisition target because of this, and I thought I’d share some additional comments and notes after having played with their voice mode for a while.

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