OpenAI Introduces SearchGPT, An AI-Powered Search Engine

• OpenAI unveils SearchGPT, an AI-powered search engine prototype that summarizes web information and provides attributed links, challenging Google's dominance.
• SearchGPT, initially available to 10,000 test users, aims to enhance search efficiency by integrating GPT-4 models with real-time web information.

Google has been ruling the search market for ages, but now it seems the search giant is about to face a competitor. 

Sam Altman-Led artificial intelligence (AI) mammoth OpenAI is launching an AI-powered search engine with real-time access to information across the internet., SearchGPT. 

SearchGPT summarizes information from websites and gives brief descriptions with attribution links, rather than linking directly to the sites. Users can also ask follow-up questions or explore additional relevant links in a sidebar.

In one example, searching for music festivals in Boone, North Carolina, for August, showed a list of festivals with brief descriptions and a link to each festival’s website. A sidebar also provided additional links to relevant information, such as event schedules and ticket sales.

The search engine is currently just a “prototype.” It uses GPT-4 models and will be available to only 10,000 test users at first. 

OpenAI says that currently, users often need several tries to get the right search results. To improve this, they plan to enhance their models with real-time web information, making searches quicker and easier. The firm also states that SearchGPT will provide fast, up-to-date answers and direct links to relevant sources.

“Getting answers on the web can take a lot of effort, often requiring multiple attempts to get relevant results. We believe that by enhancing the conversational capabilities of our models with real-time information from the web, finding what you’re looking for can be faster and easier,” reads the official announcement page. 

OpenAI is and. The plan is to eventually add these search features directly into ChatGPT.

OpenAI is also collaborating with other companies and working with publishers, using direct content feeds to create search results, giving them control over how they appear in SearchGPT, and offering more. Importantly, SearchGPT focuses on search functions and is separate from training OpenAI’s generative AI models. Sites can appear in search results even if they choose not to participate in generative AI training, as per the company.

“AI search is going to become one of the key ways that people navigate the internet, and it's crucial, in these early days, that the technology is built in a way that values, respects, and protects journalism and publishers. We look forward to partnering with OpenAI in the process, and creating a new way for readers to discover The Atlantic,” said Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic

Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk seem to agree on criticizing OpenAI. Musk has been a serial critic of OpenAI and its name. Recently, Zuckerberg in a Bloomberg interview said, “It's a somewhat ironic thing to have an organization that's named OpenAI but is sort of the leader in building closed AI models, and it's not necessarily bad, but it's kind of a little funny.”

Despite his criticism, Zuckerberg praised Sam Altman’s achievements, saying, “He deserves a lot of credit for how that organization has developed.” He also expressed empathy, noting from his own experience with public scrutiny that handling it well is challenging. He complimented Altman’s response, saying, “He’s handling it very gracefully. I think he’s doing better than I did.”

Edited by Harshajit Sarmah