OpenAI on Thursday unveiled a new prototype search engine, called SearchGPT, that could pose a direct threat to Google’s long-standing search dominance.
Microsoft (MSFT)-backed OpenAI said it will make SearchGPT available to a small number of users and publishers while it develops the software and gathers feedback. The company is positioning the service as a new way to search the web.
“Finding answers on the web can be a lot of effort, and often requires multiple tries to get relevant results. We believe that by enhancing our model’s conversational capabilities with real-time information from the web, it will be faster and easier to find what you’re looking for,” the company said in a blog post announcing the search engine.
OpenAI says it hopes to eventually integrate SearchGPT features directly into ChatGPT, and users interested in accessing the search engine will need to sign up for OpenAI’s waitlist.
OpenAI on Thursday announced its SearchGPT search engine, a direct competitor to Google. (OpenAI) (OpenAI)
Shares of Google parent Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) fell slightly after the announcement but were up slightly in premarket trading on Friday.
Generative AI has raised concerns among publishers that the technology will reduce advertising revenues and further weaken an already moribund industry because it summarizes content and removes the need for users to visit media companies’ websites.
But OpenAI seeks to allay these concerns by saying that search responses generated by its AI will include links to the websites of sources and publishers.
“SearchGPT is designed to help users connect with publishers by citing and linking to them prominently in search,” the company explains. “Responses have clear, in-line, named attribution and links so users know where the information came from, and a sidebar with source links lets them quickly see more results.”
OpenAI also said that SearchGPT is separate from how its AI models are trained, and that even if a publisher opts out of using their data to train OpenAI’s models, they will still appear in SearchGPT search results.
Google already offers a generative AI feature in its search products called AI Summary. Available through a special panel at the top of search results, AI Summary summarizes data from a website and displays it in a paragraph along with any available links.
But SearchGPT appears to be built from the ground up with generative AI in mind, rather than using the technology as an add-on to existing products like Google Search. If SearchGPT proves successful among early users and publishers, OpenAI could gain a distinct advantage.
The story continues
Microsoft’s Bing also offers its own generative AI capabilities.
But generative AI results in search engines aren’t always trustworthy: Google was forced to address concerns about its AI Overview feature shortly after its release when users noticed it was giving outlandish answers, like telling people to put glue in their pizza or telling them to eat a rock.
An example of what search results look like in SearchGPT. (OpenAI) (OpenAI)
But competing with Google is a tough task: Google controls 91% of the global search engine market across all platforms, according to Statcounter. That number jumps to 95% on mobile devices. Still, gaining even a few percentage points of market share could be worthwhile for OpenAI.
When Microsoft unveiled its version of Bing powered by generative AI in 2022, CFO Amy Hood told analysts that a mere 1 percentage point increase in market share in search advertising could drive annual revenue to $2 billion.
Subscribe to the Yahoo Finance Tech newsletter. (Yahoo Finance)
Contact Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on X. Daniel Howley.
For the latest earnings reports and analysis, earnings rumours and forecasts, and company earnings news, click here.
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance