OpenAI will debut a new, Google-dominated AI search market. The company announced an artificial intelligence-inclusive search engine, SearchGPT, with real-time access to the internet’s information.
The Thursday reveal also puts the AI giant in a new, closer rivalry with its largest backer, Microsoft’s Bing search, and rising services like search-focused AI chatbot firm Perplexity, which counts backing from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and semiconductor titan Nvidia. Alphabet shares closed 3% lower on Thursday following OpenAI’s announcement.
OpenAI said it was opening sign-ups for the new tool, which is currently in the prototyping stage and will be tested with a small number of users and publishers. The most exciting features of the search tool will eventually be merged into ChatGPT.
AI-powered search tools from OpenAI and Perplexity bring validation to search as a content engagement model but also pressure Google to be better at its own game, said Canaccord Genuity analyst Kingsley Crane.
Google has a 91.1% share in the search engine market, according to web analytics firm Statcounter as of June. SearchGPT would provide summarized search results with source links in response to user queries, OpenAI said in a blog post.
Users can ask follow-up questions receiving context-aware responses. The company will provide publishers with tools to help manage the way their content appears in SearchGPT. News Corp. and The Atlantic are joining as publishing partners for SearchGPT.
SearchGPT is one more step toward an even tighter bond between publishers and OpenAI in the wake of licensing agreements around content with giants like the Associated Press, News Corp, and Axel Springer. “Newer AI-powered search providers could face challenges of their own, with Perplexity already facing pending legal action from publishers like Wired and Forbes, and Condé Nast,” said Crane.
Major search providers have already been reaching out to find ways to fit AI into search since ChatGPT was released last November. Microsoft, in the meantime, added OpenAI technology to its Bing search engine early on, and Google expanded its roll-out of AI summaries to a wider public at its developer conference in May.
Google did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on whether it views SearchGPT as a competitive threat to its business. Reuters first reported in May that OpenAI was working on an AI-powered search.
