Revolutionizing Search: OpenAI's Game-Changing SearchGPT Unveiled
OpenAI has officially announced its highly anticipated entry into the search engine market with SearchGPT, an AI-driven search engine that offers real-time access to information across the internet.
The interface features a prominent textbox prompting users with the question, “What are you searching for?” Instead of generating a standard list of links, SearchGPT aims to categorize and clarify the results. For instance, in an illustration by OpenAI, the search engine consolidates information about music festivals, subsequently offering brief descriptions of the events and a link for further details.
In another case, it details the optimal time for planting tomatoes and elaborates on various types of the plant. Once the results are displayed, users have the option to pose additional questions or click on a sidebar for more relevant links. Additionally, a feature labeled “visual answers” is included, though OpenAI did not respond to inquiries regarding its specific functionality before publication.
Currently, SearchGPT is merely a “prototype.” The service is powered by the GPT-4 model family and will initially be available to 10,000 test users, as noted by OpenAI representative Kayla Wood. Wood mentioned that OpenAI is collaborating with external partners and utilizing direct content feeds to enhance its search outcomes. The intention is to ultimately incorporate these search functionalities directly within ChatGPT.
This initiative marks the beginning of what could pose a significant challenge to Google, which has been quick to integrate AI capabilities into its search platform, concerned that users might gravitate toward competing services that offer innovative tools first. It also places OpenAI in direct competition with the startup Perplexity, which markets itself as an AI “answer” engine. Recently, Perplexity faced criticism for its AI summarization feature, which publishers alleged was closely imitating their original content.
OpenAI seems to have taken note of the backlash and claims to adopt a distinctly different strategy. In a blog entry, the company highlighted that SearchGPT was created in partnership with various news organizations, including the owners of The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, and Vox Media, the parent company of The Verge. Wood stated, “News partners provided essential feedback, and we are continuously seeking their insights.” Publishers will have the ability to “control how they are represented in OpenAI’s search features,” according to the company. They can choose to opt out of having their content utilized for training OpenAI’s models while still appearing in search results.
OpenAI’s blog elaborated, “SearchGPT is built to assist users in connecting with publishers by prominently acknowledging and linking to them in search results. Responses feature clear, in-line attribution and links so users know where information is coming from and can quickly engage with even more results in a sidebar with source links.”
OpenAI benefits in multiple ways by launching its search engine in prototype form. First, if SearchGPT’s results are significantly inaccurate-similar to the mistakes made by Google when it launched its AI Overviews-it’s easier to dismiss them by stating it’s still in the prototype phase. Moreover, there is a risk of misattributions or potentially replicating content, as Perplexity has been accused of doing.
This new offering has been the subject of speculation for several months, with The Information reporting on its development in February, followed by Bloomberg in May. Concurrently, reports surfaced that OpenAI was aggressively trying to recruit Google employees for its search team. Some users on X also noticed a new website that OpenAI has been developing, hinting at this direction.
OpenAI has gradually been enhancing ChatGPT's connection with real-time online content. When GPT-3.5 was launched, the AI model was already outdated by several months. Last September, OpenAI introduced a browsing capability for ChatGPT, called Browse with Bing, although it appears to be more basic compared to SearchGPT.
The rapid advancements by OpenAI have won ChatGPT millions of users, but the company’s costs are adding up. Reports indicate that OpenAI’s AI training and inference costs could reach $7 billion this year, with the millions of users on the free version of ChatGPT further driving up compute costs. SearchGPT will be free during its initial launch, and since the feature appears to have no ads right now, it’s clear the company will have to figure out monetization soon.
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