Researchers at OpenAI have launched a new search engine referred to as SearchGPT. This tool relies on artificial intelligence to find information from the internet in real-time. The launch puts OpenAI in direct competition with Google, a company that has been the leader in this field for many years.
The announcement, made on Thursday, also means OpenAI is now competing with Microsoft’s Bing search engine. Microsoft is one of OpenAI’s most significant supporters. Additionally, SearchGPT will compete with other new services, such as Perplexity, an AI chatbot firm backed by Amazon, Jeff Bezos, and Nvidia, as reported by Reuters.
Shares of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, dropped by 3 percent on Thursday following OpenAI’s announcement.
OpenAI has begun sign-ups for its new tool, which is still in the prototype stage, and being tested by a small group of users and publishers. The company aims to add the best features of this search tool to ChatGPT at a later date.
AI-powered search tools from OpenAI and Perplexity show how important search is for finding and using information. They also push Google to make its services better, explained Kingsley Crane, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity.
Say goodbye to Google…say hello to SearchGPT
Google finally has a serious competitor, and it might be time to humble them! They dominated search for almost three decades without a monopoly and made life hell for many website owners.
A lot of users will be very happy about… pic.twitter.com/xBoyzgVEn1
— Udit Goenka (@iuditg) July 29, 2024
Google leads the search engine market with a 91.1 percent share as of June, based on data from web analytics firm Statcounter.
OpenAI announced in a blog post that SearchGPT will offer summarized search results with source links in response to user queries. Users can ask follow-up questions and receive detailed responses.
Publishers will have tools to manage how their content appears in SearchGPT results. News Corp and The Atlantic are among the publishing partners for SearchGPT.
Partnership between publishers and OpenAI
SearchGPT represents a closer partnership between publishers and OpenAI, building on content licensing agreements with major organizations such as the Associated Press, News Corp, and Axel Springer.
“In addition to launching the SearchGPT prototype, we are also launching a way for publishers to manage how they appear in SearchGPT, so publishers have more choices,” OpenAI mentioned in its blog.
Kingsley Crane said that newer AI-powered search providers might face their own challenges. Perplexity, for instance, is dealing with pending legal action from publishers such as Wired, Forbes, and Condé Nast.
Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, major search engines have been integrating AI into their services. Microsoft, leveraging its early investment in OpenAI, adopted this technology for its Bing search engine. Google also introduced AI-powered summaries to the public at its developer conference in May.
Google did not comment on the potential impact of SearchGPT on its business when contacted by Reuters.
