Apple Quietly Builds a ChatGPT Rival With Siri Integration in Mind

Apple has assembled a new Answers, Knowledge and Information team to develop a pared-down ChatGPT rival that delivers conversational AI search across its products. The group is building an “answer engine” capable of crawling the web and may release it as both a standalone app and a backend for Siri, Spotlight and Safari.

The unit is led by senior director Robby Walker, formerly in charge of Siri, and is actively hiring engineers with search algorithm expertise. Apple’s shift follows its decision last year to integrate ChatGPT instead of making its own tool and comes as a possible Justice Department shake-up of its $20 billion Google search deal looms.

This internal push reverses public comments from Apple executives who downplayed demand for chatbots, exposing concern about lagging in AI-driven search. Meanwhile, four members of Apple’s foundation models team have jumped to Meta’s new superintelligence lab within a month, spotlighting growing talent pressure.

Meta will let certain software engineering candidates use an AI assistant during coding tests. Internal messages reveal the plan and ask employees to join a “mock AI-enabled interview” pilot.

The move is framed as part of Silicon Valley’s wider push for engineers to work hand-in-hand with AI tools. Meta’s note positions AI fluency as a core hiring criterion, not a bonus skill.

Allowing assistants in interviews shifts evaluation from solo code output to how well candidates collaborate with AI. The policy signals Meta’s intent to staff teams with developers who treat AI pair-programming as routine.

Recruiting firm Hirewell reports its marketing clients have effectively stopped requesting entry-level staff because generative AI now handles their routine tasks. Grindr and other employers are skipping junior coders and prioritizing seasoned engineers as CEOs from Amazon to Ford signal deep white-collar cuts.

Burning Glass data show an ever-smaller share of graduates landing jobs requiring a bachelor’s degree since 2020, while recent grads face 6.6% unemployment versus the 4% national rate. SignalFire found the 15 largest tech companies cut entry-level hiring to 7% of all new recruits in 2024, half the 2019 proportion.

Leaders such as Workday’s chief learning officer warn that removing grunt work robs young employees of the experiential learning that builds future capability. Williams and Carlyle are scrambling to add intensive mentoring and AI training programs to compensate, even as they keep overall head counts flat.

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AI startup Harvey reports it has hit $100 million in annual recurring revenue just three years after launch. The platform gives law firms and corporates AI tools for research, drafting and diligence, and now counts more than 500 customers including Comcast.

Weekly average users have quadrupled over the past year as large clients rapidly add seats once deployed. The company has attracted more than $800 million from investors such as Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital and the OpenAI Startup Fund.

Crossing nine-figure revenue this quickly highlights how generative AI is already translating into material spend inside the historically conservative legal sector. Harvey has recruited former Twitter engineering director Siva Gurumurthy as CTO and ex-Stripe executive John Haddock as CBO to manage its next phase of scale.

Domino's routes about 80% of its North American phone orders to an AI assistant that speaks in local accents. The text-to-speech engine comes from San Francisco–based Rime Labs.

When ConverseNow first fielded a generic synthetic voice, roughly half of callers demanded a human; Rime's more natural voices have pushed acceptance close to 100%. The system shifts pronunciation for items like MeatZZa and can adopt African-American Vernacular English to match regional norms.

Restaurant executives say the AI removes a task from busy kitchen staff rather than cutting jobs. Fewer hang-ups mean phone sales continue smoothly even as app and delivery channels expand.

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