The Potential Alliance Between Apple and AI

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The Slow Giant.

For many years, Apple has been synonymous with technological innovation and a commitment to providing users with the most intuitive interaction with its devices.

Whether we’re talking about laptops or smartphones, the historic Cupertino-based company has maintained a firm place in the technology hall of fame, dominating the global market thanks to strong customer loyalty.

Nonetheless, this hi-tech giant is struggling to keep pace in the frenzied and ruthless race of generative artificial intelligence.

The proliferation of large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s GPT and Google’s Gemini has, in fact, highlighted a strategic delay that Apple now aims to address by integrating more sophisticated, conversational AI capabilities into the core of its ecosystem.

In simpler terms, the Californian titan is looking to revolutionize Siri, Spotlight, and its physical devices (iPhone and Mac) by equipping them with a true “answer engine” — an intelligent system capable of understanding complex contexts and providing direct, accurate, and contextualized answers based on real-time information.

In this regard, a possible acquisition of Perplexity AI would allow Apple to bypass years of internal development by leveraging a mature technology focused specifically on “conversational” search systems.

Perplexity AI and the Generative AI Gold Rush

Before analyzing the effects of a possible alliance between Apple and Perplexity AI, it’s important to understand the players involved.

Who is Perplexity AI?

If you’ve missed recent developments in tech and artificial intelligence, you may be wondering: what exactly is Perplexity AI?

It’s a startup (Perplexity AI, Inc.) that has focused its resources on creating and developing a conversational search engine based on large language models (LLMs).

The first model was launched in San Francisco by Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski in December 2022, and it has since attracted the attention of many private investors, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

To give an idea of the company’s exponential growth, as of today, its valuation is estimated at around 14 billion US dollars — a figure that could grow even more, given the rising interest from both public and private investors in artificial intelligence.

So, how is this valuation justified, and what are the key supporting factors?

There are essentially three main elements:

The intrinsic value of the technology: Perplexity has developed proprietary language models and a search infrastructure capable of analyzing and synthesizing information from the web in real time with remarkable precision — and crucially, it cites its sources. This hybrid approach, combining traditional web search with the power of language models, is seen by many as the future of online search.
The Strategic potential in the current hi-tech market: Industry leaders — including Apple — would need years to develop similar technology internally, with no guarantee of achieving the same level of sophistication.
The ongoing “gold rush” in generative AI: In this current climate, cutting-edge talent and technology are being rewarded with astronomical valuations due to their potential to disrupt entire industries.

How the Perplexity AI Model Works — and How Apple Plans to Use It.

As mentioned, the strength of the San Francisco-based startup lies in having created an “answer engine” capable of providing users with concise summaries and citing sources for the information provided.

But how does this innovative model actually work?

We can break it down into five key steps:

Understanding the query: When a user asks a question, Perplexity uses an AI system (like ChatGPT) to interpret what’s being asked, even if the question is phrased awkwardly or uses non-standard wording.
Combining internal and external search results: Perplexity merges results from its own system (so-called proprietary web crawling) with those from external search engines (such as Bing). In other words, the model doesn’t rely solely on what it “knows”, it pulls in fresh data from other sources, reading articles, websites, and trusted references to find the most relevant, up-to-date information.
Selecting information based on the original query: From the gathered results, Perplexity filters out everything unnecessary — no ads, no irrelevant content — keeping only what clearly and concisely answers the user's question.
Generating the response and citing sources: With the selected information, it composes a clear, direct, and conversational-style answer. Additionally, Perplexity shows the user exactly where each piece of information came from, including numbered references and clickable links.
Dynamic learning: If a user provides feedback indicating the response was unhelpful or off-topic, Perplexity factors that into future results — essentially learning from its mistakes.

In short, Perplexity AI has built a smart assistant that “reads” the internet for users, understands their search intent, summarizes results simply, and communicates them as if in conversation — with proper source attribution.

It’s no surprise, then, that Apple has expressed interest in implementing the Perplexity model into its iOS, iPadOS, and macOS ecosystems — including Siri and Spotlight — with the dual goal of accelerating internal development and catching up with competitors like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft.

The Terms of a Potential Deal — and Reservations on Both Sides.

While Apple’s objectives are clear, the path toward a potential partnership with Perplexity AI is less so.

Apple is renowned for its strict stance on user data protection, and any collaboration with the San Francisco startup would need to align with those standards — likely by ensuring most processing happens directly on the iPhone or Mac, rather than in the cloud.

Perplexity’s current search process involves sending user data to external servers for processing and response generation. While this data may not be inherently dangerous, it could include personal or sensitive information that Apple wouldn’t be able to safeguard if handled outside its own devices.

On the other hand, Perplexity AI is well aware of growing antitrust scrutiny aimed at tech giants. A direct acquisition by a behemoth like Apple would almost certainly face intense regulatory review in both Europe and the United States, possibly resulting in hefty fines.

For these reasons, rather than a full acquisition, a technology licensing agreement may represent a more practical and legally safer route.

In this way, Apple would be able to implement Perplexity’s generative AI on its own terms, while Perplexity, for its part, would remain “unbound” from the Cupertino giant — free to diversify its partnerships and establish itself as an independent and neutral player in the field of AI research.

By striking deals with other tech and telecommunications companies, Perplexity AI could also use its technology for the benefit of the entire digital ecosystem, rather than serving the interests of an already overly dominant tech giant.

Predictions aside, the synergies between the two groups are clear: Apple would bring a user base of over two billion active devices and an unmatched distribution capability. Perplexity, on the other hand, would contribute advanced AI technology and the agility of a startup focused on a single goal. The combination could lead to the creation of a truly personal and contextual AI assistant, capable of managing emails, booking appointments, planning trips, and answering complex questions — all with a level of integration and fluidity that competitors would struggle to match.

In short, whatever the future may hold, the potential of this partnership is immense and could mark a new turning point in the implementation of Artificial Intelligence in everyday life.