OpenAI Challenges Google with New AI Search Engine

OpenAI announced on Thursday its boldest move yet against major Big Tech competitors: a search engine that integrates artificial intelligence from the ground up.

The company is currently testing SearchGPT, which merges its AI technology with real-time web information, enabling users to search for information similarly to how they interact with ChatGPT. Although this search engine is in an early testing phase with a limited user base, OpenAI plans to eventually integrate these tools into ChatGPT.

This new feature positions OpenAI in direct competition with Google, which has long dominated the online search market but has been scrambling to keep up in the AI race since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022. SearchGPT could also challenge Microsoft’s Bing, which incorporated OpenAI’s technology last year to better compete with Google.

SearchGPT allows users to ask questions in natural language, just like with ChatGPT, and receive answers that can be followed up with additional questions. However, unlike ChatGPT, which often relies on outdated data, SearchGPT provides up-to-date information with links to “clear and relevant sources.”

In a demonstration video, SearchGPT answers a query about the “best tomatoes to grow in Minnesota” with details on different tomato varieties and links to sites like “The Garden Magazine” and “The Gardening Dad.” The tool also features a sidebar with additional links to related information, resembling the traditional ten blue links seen in Google search results.

“Getting answers on the web can take a lot of effort, often requiring multiple attempts to get relevant results,” OpenAI stated in a blog post. “We believe that by enhancing the conversational capabilities of our models with real-time information from the web, finding what you’re looking for can be faster and easier.”

OpenAI’s search engine could solidify generative AI—technology capable of creating original text and other media—as the future of online information retrieval. This comes after Google and others have explored integrating chatbots and AI-generated answers into the search experience. However, this future is not guaranteed, given AI’s tendency to confidently present false information without indicating its potential inaccuracies.

Google introduced AI-generated summaries atop some search results pages in May, aiming to provide quick answers without users needing to click multiple links. However, Google quickly pulled back after the feature delivered false or nonsensical information in response to some queries.

The introduction of Google’s tool also raised concerns among news publishers, who feared that AI summaries could reduce their web traffic by eliminating the need for users to visit their sites for information. Similar concerns might emerge with OpenAI’s search engine.

Nevertheless, OpenAI mentioned on Thursday that it has partnered with publishers to develop the tool, giving them options to “manage how they appear” in SearchGPT’s results. It also noted that sites can appear in SearchGPT even if they have opted out of having their content used to train the company’s AI models.