OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research laboratory, has announced a prototype of its new AI-powered search engine, SearchGPT, promising a more intuitive and conversational way of interacting with online information. SearchGPT is currently being tested with a small group of users and the company has plans to eventually integrate it into ChatGPT. OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman believes that the current state of search can be significantly improved.
ChatGPT already has Bing integration. However, SearchGPT will combine generative AI with real-time search for a more sophisticated AI-driven search experience. Despite this, there are concerns about the access SearchGPT may have to certain websites as about 15% of top websites are known to block OpenAI’s web crawlers. This may potentially limit the pool of information available to AI browsers and impact the quality of its search results. OpenAI is reportedly working on securing partnerships with news companies to mitigate this issue.
The development of SearchGPT caused Alphabet, Google’s parent company, shares to fall by over 3%. This happened following another setback for Google when users of its AI-enhanced search launched in May, AI Overview, complained about its inability to return accurate results.
SearchGPT is part of OpenAI’s broader strategy to maintain its leading position in the generative AI market amid increasing competition. OpenAI recently launched a new AI model named “GPT-4o mini,” which is derived from its fastest and most powerful model yet, GPT-4o. The company also announced the hiring of Sarah Friar, formerly the CEO of Nextdoor and finance chief at Square, as CFO, and Kevin Weil, previously of Planet Labs, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, as CPO.
Despite OpenAI’s efforts to stay ahead, competition in the AI market has become more intense. ChatGPT, while still the most widely used chatbot tool, faces challenges from open-source projects like Meta’s Llama 3.1, Mistral, and others. OpenAI’s SearchGPT is their latest attempt to maintain their lead. However, there are questions about its potential release date, especially due to the delays experienced with GPT-4o’s voice synthesis demonstration.
