OpenAI Develops New Feature to Compete with Google Search
OpenAI, the creator of the prominent language model ChatGPT, is reportedly preparing to venture into the search engine market by developing a feature for ChatGPT that enables it to crawl the web for answers and provide citations to sources. This move positions OpenAI as a direct competitor to Google's dominant search engine and other AI-powered search startups like Perplexity. The new search functionality will greatly enhance ChatGPT's capabilities, allowing users to ask questions and receive responses that incorporate current, relevant information from the web, complete with source attributions and possibly visuals like diagrams.
This development aligns with the increasing pressure OpenAI faces to expand ChatGPT's functionality as competitors continue to launch new chatbots in the market. Search has become a central focus for the AI industry, with companies like Perplexity drawing significant attention for their AI-powered search engines that emphasize accuracy and source attribution. Google, too, is reimagining its core search experience around AI and is expected to unveil its latest plans involving its Gemini AI models at the upcoming Google I/O event.
Although the user interface for ChatGPT's search engine feature has yet to be revealed, it is expected to adapt to different devices. On desktops, web results and AI summaries may be displayed side by side, while on smartphones, they might be stacked sequentially. This is reminiscent of how Microsoft's Copilot integrates GPT-4 with the Bing search engine, providing a potential preview of what the ChatGPT search engine might look and function like.
The notion of OpenAI expanding ChatGPT's capabilities with a search engine is further supported by the appearance of the 'search.chatgpt.com' webpage, which briefly redirected to ChatGPT's official website before displaying a 'not found' message. This hints at an imminent launch of the search feature. OpenAI has also reportedly registered a new domain name for a 'ChatGPT search engine' and acquired a security certificate, bolstering the speculation around the company's search ambitions.
While OpenAI has yet to make any official announcements, the expected unveiling of its search engine feature could provide direct competition to Google, which holds about 90% of the search engine market share. Following Google, Microsoft's Bing holds the second position in the market and has been elevating its search and AI efforts with Copilot, which integrates the GPT-4 model into Bing.
Once launched, OpenAI's new search engine feature could significantly disrupt the search market, offering a dynamic alternative that merges AI language model capabilities with traditional search engine functions. This move represents a bold expansion for OpenAI and a notable step towards challenging the long-standing search engine hierarchy.
