Apple has assembled a new engineering organisation, the Answers, Knowledge and Information (AKI) group, to build an in-house large-language-model search engine that would underpin a revamped Siri as well as Spotlight and Safari, according to internal communications cited by Bloomberg and AppleInsider. The unit is led by senior AI director Robby Walker and sits under AI chief John Giannandrea, with Apple now recruiting specialists in search algorithms and generative-AI services. The restructuring is Apple’s most concrete step yet to close the gap with rivals that already ship ChatGPT- or Gemini-style assistants. The company has been relying on a stop-gap integration of OpenAI’s ChatGPT while it works on its own model. The overhauled Siri, built on a new architecture rather than bolted on to the existing voice assistant, is targeted for release in the first half of 2026. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook told employees in an all-hands meeting held after last week’s earnings call that artificial intelligence is “ours to grab,” adding, “Apple must do this; Apple will do this.” Software chief Craig Federighi said the company now expects to deliver “a much bigger upgrade than we envisioned,” after abandoning earlier plans to merge Apple Intelligence features with the legacy Siri code base. The intensified push comes as Apple’s share price has lagged peers amid investor concern that the company is falling behind in generative AI. Management has authorised increased spending and hiring to accelerate development, but Apple still faces formidable competition from Google, Microsoft and OpenAI, all of which are preparing new model releases this quarter.