OpenAI has entered the search engine arena with the launch of SearchGPT, a new feature designed to provide timely answers to user queries by drawing from web sources.
On Thursday, OpenAI unveiled SearchGPT, which closely resembles the company’s existing chatbot platform, ChatGPT. Users can type in a query, and SearchGPT returns information and images from the web, along with links to relevant sources. This allows users to ask follow-up questions or explore related searches in a sidebar.
Some searches in SearchGPT are tailored based on the user’s location. OpenAI explains that the feature collects and shares general location information with third-party search providers to enhance the accuracy of results, such as showing nearby restaurants or local weather forecasts. Users can choose to share more precise location information through a toggle in the settings menu.
Powered by OpenAI models (specifically GPT-3.5, GPT-4, and GPT-4o), SearchGPT is described as a prototype and is currently available to a limited group of users and publishers. There is a waitlist for those interested in trying it out. OpenAI plans to integrate some SearchGPT features into ChatGPT in the future.
“Getting answers on the web can be time-consuming, often requiring multiple attempts to find relevant results,” OpenAI stated in a blog post. “By enhancing the conversational capabilities of our models with real-time information from the web, we believe finding what you’re looking for can be faster and easier.”
Rumors about OpenAI developing a competitor to Google have circulated for some time. Reports from February indicated that a product or at least a pilot was in the works. However, the launch of SearchGPT comes at a challenging time, as AI-powered search tools face criticism for issues such as plagiarism, inaccuracies, and content cannibalism.
Other AI search tools have faced significant problems. For instance, Google’s AI Overviews suggested inappropriate actions like putting glue on a pizza. The Browser Company’s Arc Search mistakenly advised that cut-off toes would grow back. AI search engine Genspark once recommended weapons for harming others, and Perplexity has been criticized for copying news articles without proper attribution.
AI-generated summaries threaten to reduce traffic to original content sources. A study found that AI Overviews could negatively impact about 25% of publisher traffic due to the decreased emphasis on article links.
In response to these challenges, OpenAI is positioning SearchGPT as a more responsible and measured deployment. The company emphasizes that SearchGPT “prominently cites and links” to publishers in searches with “clear, in-line, named attribution.” OpenAI also states it is working with publishers to design the user experience and provides a way for website owners to manage how their content appears in search results.
“Importantly, SearchGPT is about search and is separate from training OpenAI’s generative AI foundation models. Sites can be surfaced in search results even if they opt out of generative AI training,” OpenAI clarified in the blog post. “We are committed to a thriving ecosystem of publishers and creators.”
While skepticism remains due to OpenAI’s past practices, the development of SearchGPT will be closely watched as it unfolds.
