After months of speculation, OpenAI’s search engine, SearchGPT, is finally here — but only as a prototype and in limited testing. Still, it’s a defining moment for the generative AI company and may represent the first substantial challenge to Google’s dominance as a search engine.
OpenAI announced in a blog post on Thursday that it is testing SearchGPT. It calls it a “temporary prototype” and only posts a waiting list for access. Still, we are learning a lot about the kind of results you can expect from SearchGPT.
The main screen will start with an open dialog box that already has the phrase “What are you looking for?”. It will accept natural language queries, similar to what Google does, but unlike the world’s most popular search engine, SearchGPT will accept follow-up queries.
An example is a search for “Best tomatoes to grow in Minnesota” and then a follow-up query: “Which of these can I plant now?” OpenAI implies that context will be maintained across additional queries, a feat not currently possible with Google or Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
OpenAI’s development of a search engine is remarkable, considering that the initial version of its Large Language Model (LLM)-based ChatGPT did not have access to the web to obtain real-time information. Its data training was halted sometime in 2021.
Instead, according to OpenAI, SearchGPT will “combine the strength of our AI models with information from around the web to provide you with fast, timely answers from clear, relevant sources.”
OpenAI makes it clear that SearchGPT will cite its sources and include direct links to them – something that Google’s new Gemini AI-powered search results aren’t always clear to do. There’s a sense that OpenAI is trying to play the role of a good search engine citizen by promising to help users “discover publishers’ sites and experiences.” Considering how many publishers and content creators are currently suing OpenAI for allegedly scraping their data to train its models, that’s a remarkable stance.
The artificial intelligence company is already looking for publishing partners such as The Atlantic.
“AI-powered search will become one of the key ways 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,” The Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson said in the SearchGPT blog post.
Perhaps as a way to avoid the current data deletion litigation, OpenAI notes that “SearchGPT is about search and is independent of the training of OpenAI’s core generative AI models,” adding that publishers’ results will be included even if they disagree with OpenAI’s generative training.
SearchGPT also promises more visual search results that look nothing like what one might expect from Google or Bing.
SearchGPT will be a standalone AI search engine, but OpenAI plans to eventually integrate it into ChatGPT, which could make that platform much more powerful and useful.
The arrival of SearchGPT comes just weeks after Google integrated Gemini Generative Search results at the top of many search results pages as AIO overviews. It was a decision that was met with some chagrin from those who rely on Google for fast, hassle-free results and from publishers who are concerned about their results and links being displayed further down the page. Google has likely been driven in part to embrace AI by Bing, which holds pioneer status in the AI search space with OpenAI’s ChatGPT-based generative AI. In some ways, it feels like AI search has come full circle. The question remains, though: is this what people want from search?
You can sign up for the waiting list (you need a ChatGPT account) here.
