OpenAI is stepping up its game against Big Tech giants with a bold new move. On Thursday, the company announced the launch of SearchGPT, a search engine that integrates artificial intelligence from the ground up. This latest development marks OpenAI’s most direct challenge yet to Google’s dominance in the online search market.
SearchGPT is currently in the early testing phase, accessible to a limited group of users. The innovative tool combines OpenAI’s AI technology with real-time web information, allowing users to search for information using natural language, much like they do when chatting with ChatGPT. OpenAI has revealed plans to integrate SearchGPT directly into ChatGPT in the future, expanding its functionality and reach.
With this new search engine, OpenAI is positioning itself as a serious competitor to Google, which has long been the leader in online search. Google has been striving to keep up with the rapid advancements in AI that were sparked by OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT in November 2022. SearchGPT also poses a potential threat to Microsoft’s Bing, another search engine that has integrated OpenAI’s technology in an effort to compete with Google.
SearchGPT offers a user experience similar to ChatGPT, where users can ask questions in everyday language and receive detailed answers. However, unlike ChatGPT, which often relies on outdated information, SearchGPT will provide users with the most current data available, complete with links to what OpenAI describes as “clear and relevant sources.”
For instance, a demo shared by OpenAI showcased SearchGPT responding to a query about the “best tomatoes to grow in Minnesota” with detailed information on tomato varieties and links to relevant sites like “The Garden Magazine” and “The Gardening Dad.” Additionally, SearchGPT features a sidebar with more links to relevant information, somewhat reminiscent of the traditional search results page on Google, with its familiar ten blue links.
“Getting answers on the web can be time-consuming, often requiring multiple searches to find relevant results,” OpenAI explained in a blog post. “By enhancing our models’ conversational abilities with real-time information from the web, we believe finding what you’re looking for can be faster and easier.”
SearchGPT could solidify the role of generative AI in the future of online search, building on initial attempts by Google and others to integrate chatbots and AI-generated answers into search functions. However, this future is not guaranteed. AI tools have a known tendency to confidently present incorrect or misleading information, raising concerns about their reliability.
Google has faced its own challenges with AI in search. In May, the company introduced AI-generated summaries at the top of some search results pages, aiming to provide users with quick answers without the need to click through multiple links. However, after reports of the tool delivering false or nonsensical information, Google quickly scaled back its use.
The introduction of Google’s AI summaries also sparked concerns among news publishers, who feared that the feature could divert web traffic away from their sites. Similar concerns may arise with the launch of OpenAI’s SearchGPT.
To address these concerns, OpenAI stated on Thursday that it had partnered with publishers to develop SearchGPT and offer them options for managing how their content appears in search results. Notably, sites can be featured in SearchGPT even if they have opted out of allowing their content to be used in training OpenAI’s AI models.
As OpenAI continues to innovate in the field of AI-powered search, the competition between tech giants for dominance in the next generation of search engines is heating up.
