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Business

OpenAI takes on Google, Microsoft with own ChatGPT search engine SearchGPT

By
Taylor Herzlich
Published Nov. 1, 2024, 3:22 p.m. ET

OpenAI is taking on Google, the most dominant search engine, with its own SearchGPT.

The startup on Thursday unveiled its artificial intelligence-powered search engine, which offers users real-time sports scores, stock quotes, news, weather and more, the company said.

OpenAI has partnered with a number of news organizations so its search engine will be able to pull from these companies’ content.

Sam Altman’s OpenAI unveiled its artificial intelligence-powered search engine, SearchGPT. AFP via Getty Images

The AI-powered search engine, which is folded into the company’s popular ChatGPT chatbot, is a threat to Google’s domineering share of the market.

Google parent Alphabet’s shares dipped about 1% on Thursday.

The move also poses a threat to Microsoft’s less-popular Bing search engine and Perplexity, another AI-powered search engine.

Microsoft has invested nearly $14 billion in OpenAI, though the startup’s products compete directly with its own.

In a Reddit chain on Thursday, OpenAI’s engineering VP, Srinivas Narayana, answered a question about whether the company used Bing to make its chatbot search engine.

“We use a set of services and Bing is an important one,” Narayanan said.

ChaptGPT Plus and Team users, and those on SearchGPT’s waitlist, can access the new search engine starting Thursday, OpenAI said. ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu users will get access over the next few weeks and it will roll out to users of ChatGPT’s free version over the next few months, the company said.

Screenshot of chat with OpenAI's SearchGPT.
Users can access the search engine within the chatbot and ask questions in a conversational manner. OpenAI

The search engine will be able to answer user queries in a more conversational way. Users can ask follow-up questions on more nuanced searches.

“I find it to be a way faster/easier way to get the information I’m looking for,” Altman said Thursday during the Reddit “AMA,” or “ask me anything.” “I think we’ll see this especially for queries that require more complex research. I also look forward to a future where a search query can dynamically render a custom web page in response!”

The search engine is a work in progress.

The company said it even used feedback from the SearchGPT prototype to build the final search engine.

Open AI's move poses a threat to Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
Open AI’s move poses a threat to Microsoft’s Bing search engine. SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The company hopes to improve the search engine when it comes to shopping and travel suggestions.

SearchGPT will have no shortage of news, since the company has partnered with The Associated Press, Reuters, Axel Springer, Condé Nast, Hearst, Dotdash Meredith, the Financial Times, Le Monde, The Atlantic, Time, Vox Media and News Corp., which owns the New York Post.

The search engine chats include links to sources.

Earlier this month, OpenAI closed its latest funding round at a valuation of $157 billion, including the $6.6 billion raised during the round. 

Meanwhile, startups like Musk’s xAI are racing to catch up with similarly massive funding rounds and mainstream tech giants like Google and Microsoft are dishing big on AI advancements, causing them to issue layoffs and pursue other cost-cutting measures.

However, OpenAI has taken some heat in recent months as it has disbanded some teams that advised the company on how to manage artificial intelligence and release it safely into the world.