OpenAI enhanced its ChatGPT generative AI chatbot by adding ChatGPT search engine. This move directly challenges Google’s long-standing dominance in web search.
With this upgrade, users can now obtain “fast, timely answers” accompanied by links to relevant web sources. Previously, this information required a traditional search engine. The update equips ChatGPT to provide real-time information from various online resources.
Additionally, ChatGPT’s homepage now features direct tabs for sourced materials on various topics, including weather forecasts, stock prices, sports scores, and breaking news. These tabs link to content from partners like France’s Le Monde, Germany’s Axel Springer, and the UK’s Financial Times, all of which have signed content agreements with OpenAI.
OpenAI’s New Search Interface: A Direct Challenge to Google
OpenAI’s website showcases a new interface that closely resembles search results from Google and Google Maps. However, it eliminates the clutter of advertising. This design also echoes the interface of Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine that provides a more conversational experience, complete with referenced sources.
Both OpenAI and Perplexity currently face lawsuits from the New York Times for scraping or linking to copyrighted content without permission. Instead of launching a separate product, OpenAI has integrated search capabilities directly into ChatGPT for paying subscribers, with plans to extend this feature to free users.
Users can enable the search feature by default or activate it manually using a web search icon. Furthermore, any website or publisher can choose to appear in ChatGPT’s search results. OpenAI actively seeks feedback from content creators to refine the system and improve user experience.
Favorite Feature
Since their launch, data on AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude have faced limitations due to time cutoffs. This issue has resulted in outdated answers, which many see as a weakness of AI chatbots. OpenAI lacks a standalone search engine to provide timely data, unlike Google and Microsoft, which combine AI responses with web results.
For now, OpenAI’s new ChatGPT Search Engine feature will not include advertising, allowing ChatGPT to deliver cleaner results than Google.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expressed his enthusiasm about the search feature on X, calling it his “favorite feature we have launched” since ChatGPT debuted in 2022. He also shared on Reddit that he finds it a “way faster/easier way to get the information I’m looking for.”
This launch raises questions about OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft, a key investor. Microsoft is also working to expand its Bing search engine in competition with Google.
Altman aims to position OpenAI as an internet powerhouse. He recently secured a staggering $157 billion valuation through fundraising that included major investors like Microsoft, SoftBank, and Nvidia.
However, attracting new users with these search capabilities will significantly increase the company’s computing needs and costs, which are already substantial.
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