The Justice Department is allegedly looking into Google, and its link with Apple is being examined. This probe may center on Google's large annual payments to Apple—estimated to be over $20 billion—in exchange for maintaining its position as the iPhone's default search engine (via 9To5Mac). The Justice Department claims that this relationship limits competition in the search engine business. Although Apple is not a listed defendant in the lawsuit, Eddy Cue and other Apple officials have testified.

The Information just published a piece that details Google's calculated efforts to lessen its need for Apple's Safari browser while it awaits the resolution of the antitrust lawsuit. Google has made several attempts over the years to get iPhone users to use its own Google and Chrome applications instead of other search engines.

According to reports, Apple received billions of dollars as payment as part of a revenue-sharing arrangement, which gives Apple a cut of the money generated by Google searches made through Safari. Google aims to lower its payments to Apple and lessen its exposure to regulatory measures by enticing consumers to switch to Chrome and Google applications. But convincing people to give up Safari—which is pre-installed on Apple devices—has proven to be a difficult undertaking. 

Google just hired Robby Stein, a former Yahoo and Instagram executive, to lead this project. According to those working with the project, one of Stein's mandates is to use generative AI to improve the attractiveness of Google apps. Executives at Google even considered restricting the use of its AI Overviews function, which offers AI-generated search results, to its own applications. This was eventually dropped since it would have prevented Safari users from accessing AI Overviews.