Apple exec sends Google shares plunging as he calls AI the new search

An Apple executive's backhanded endorsement of AI as a replacement for traditional internet searches has sent Google stock tumbling. 

Apple senior vice president of services Eddy Cue made a number of interesting statements about the future of AI, and its potential impact on Google's bottom line, during testimony Wednesday in the remedies phase of the US Department of Justice's lawsuit against Google parent Alphabet. That's the lawsuit that resulted in a judge ruling that Google's payments to make its search engine the default for smartphone browsers and elsewhere broke American antitrust law.

Alphabet shareholders were shaken by Cue's statements, as reported by Bloomberg, that he saw AI likely replacing traditional search engines like Google in coming years. As part of that expectation, Cue also noted that Apple intended to make changes to Safari to place AI-driven search alongside traditional web search, with tools from ...