OpenAI has entered the search game with the unveiling of SearchGPT, a search feature that aims to compete with Google, Bing, and other search engines. The company’s goal is to provide timely answers to user queries by drawing information from web sources. SearchGPT has a user interface similar to OpenAI’s chatbot platform, ChatGPT. Users can enter a query and receive information, photos, and links to relevant sources. They can also ask follow-up questions or explore related searches in a sidebar.
One interesting feature of SearchGPT is its ability to take into account the user’s location. By collecting and sharing general location information with third-party search providers, SearchGPT can provide more accurate and personalized results. Users also have the option to share more precise location information through the settings menu.
Powered by OpenAI models such as GPT-3.5, GPT-4, and GPT-4o, SearchGPT is currently in the prototype stage and is being launched for a small group of users and publishers. OpenAI plans to integrate some of SearchGPT’s features into ChatGPT in the future.
OpenAI aims to enhance the conversational capabilities of its models by incorporating real-time information from the web. The company believes that this approach will make it faster and easier for users to find the information they are looking for.
The launch of SearchGPT comes at a time when AI-powered search tools are facing criticism for issues such as plagiarism, inaccuracies, and content cannibalism. Examples include Google’s AI Overviews suggesting putting glue on a pizza and The Browser Company’s Arc Search claiming that cut-off toes will grow back. AI search engine Genspark has also recommended weapons that could be used to kill someone. Additionally, Perplexity has been accused of ripping off news articles without giving proper credit or attribution.
These AI-generated overviews pose a threat to the traffic of the websites they source information from. A study has shown that AI Overviews could negatively impact around 25% of publisher traffic by de-emphasizing article links.
In contrast to these issues, OpenAI is positioning SearchGPT as a more responsible and measured approach to AI-powered search. The company ensures that SearchGPT prominently cites and links to publishers in search results with clear attribution. OpenAI is also working with publishers to design the search experience and providing a way for website owners to manage how their content appears in search results. OpenAI emphasizes that SearchGPT is separate from training its generative AI foundation models and that sites can appear in search results even if they opt out of generative AI training.
Although OpenAI has faced criticism in the past for scraping YouTube transcripts without permission, the company claims to be committed to a thriving ecosystem of publishers and creators. The success of SearchGPT and its ability to address concerns related to AI-powered search tools remains to be seen.
