OpenAI launched a new prototype search engine on Thursday, introducing SearchGPT, a potential competitor to Google’s longstanding search supremacy.
Microsoft-backed OpenAI announced that SearchGPT will initially be available to a limited group of users and publishers as the company refines the software and gathers feedback. OpenAI is positioning this new feature as an innovative approach to web searching.
“Obtaining answers on the web often requires multiple attempts to yield relevant results. We believe that by enhancing the conversational capabilities of our models with real-time web information, searching can become faster and easier,” OpenAI stated in a blog post revealing the search engine.
OpenAI plans to eventually integrate SearchGPT into ChatGPT. Users interested in trying the search engine can join the waitlist.
Following the announcement, shares of Google’s parent company, Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), dipped slightly but recovered in pre-market trading on Friday.
Addressing Concerns of Generative AI Impact on Publishers
Generative AI has sparked concerns among publishers that the technology might summarize content, reducing the need for users to visit media websites and impacting advertising revenue. OpenAI aims to mitigate these fears by ensuring that generative AI search responses will include links to sources and publishers’ websites.
“SearchGPT is designed to connect users with publishers by prominently citing and linking to them in searches,” OpenAI explained. “Responses will have clear, in-line, named attributions and links, enabling users to quickly engage with more results in a sidebar with source links.”
OpenAI also clarified that SearchGPT operates independently from the company’s AI model training. Publishers who opt out of using their data for AI training will still appear in SearchGPT search results.
Competition and Market Dynamics
Google already offers generative AI capabilities in its search product through AI Overviews, which summarize website data and present it in a single paragraph with links. However, SearchGPT is designed with generative AI at its core, unlike Google’s approach of adding AI to an existing product. This foundational difference could give OpenAI an edge if SearchGPT proves successful with early users and publishers.
Microsoft’s Bing also features its own generative AI capabilities. Despite the competition, generative AI search results have faced reliability issues. For instance, Google had to address concerns about AI Overviews providing bizarre responses, such as advising users to put glue on pizza or eat rocks.
The Challenge Ahead
Tackling Google is no easy feat. According to Statcounter, Google controls 91% of the global search engine market across all platforms, rising to 95% on mobile devices. Nevertheless, even a minor shift in market share could be significant for OpenAI.
When Microsoft launched its generative AI-powered Bing in 2022, CFO Amy Hood noted that just a 1% increase in search advertising market share could translate to $2 billion in annual revenue.
OpenAI’s SearchGPT marks a bold move in the search engine landscape, potentially reshaping how users interact with and retrieve information from the web.
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