Apple’s Safari Highlights vs. Google’s AI Overviews: A Comparison of AI-Driven Browser Features
At its WWDC 2024 developer conference, Apple unveiled Safari Highlights, a browser feature that closely resembles Google’s AI Overviews. Safari Highlights uses machine learning to display relevant information at the top of certain web pages as users browse.
This feature is part of Apple’s significant push into generative AI, which includes the introduction of an AI framework called Apple Intelligence. This framework will power new features such as text summaries and image personalization, as well as a revamped version of Siri that will become more conversational and personal.
Safari Highlights works by displaying directions, summaries, and links to help users learn more about the people, music, movies, and TV shows they are researching via the browser.
The feature taps information from sources like Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, and Wikipedia. For instance, if a user is reading an article about Dua Lipa, Safari Highlights might pull an album from Apple Music, or if they are reading a review of Palm Royale, it could feature the show’s Apple TV Plus page.
In comparison, Google’s AI Overviews were designed to revolutionize search with a custom Gemini model that better understands user intent and quickly addresses their queries. These summaries cover a much wider range of information and source responses from across the web, with a more personalized aspect as Google’s AI systems learn from user behavior.
However, Google scaled back AI Overviews after the feature sometimes returned bizarre responses, such as suggesting that people eat rocks or put glue on pizza. The company refined the queries that yield AI Overviews, stating that the feature would no longer address health-related queries or when it senses users are trying to trip it up.
Google’s Gemini and other chatbots are known to have trouble with AI hallucinations, where a generative AI model presents false or misleading information as fact. Hallucinations arise from flawed training data, algorithmic errors, or misinterpretations of context.
Apple also announced a similar feature, Safari Summaries, for its Reader app. Here, Apple will remove “distractions” like ads from articles and add a table of contents and a summary for what users are about to read. Videos will automatically expand to fill the window in a similar capacity.
The differences between Safari Highlights and Google’s AI Overviews highlight the distinct approaches the two tech giants are taking in their AI strategies.
While both features aim to streamline information access, Safari Highlights is narrower in its focus, primarily drawing from Apple’s own services and Wikipedia, whereas Google’s AI Overviews cover a broader range of information and sources.
