OpenAI is adding a new set of search capabilities to its flagship product ChatGPT, raising the artificial intelligence startup’s challenge to Alphabet’s Google.
Alphabet shares fell more than 1% on Thursday (31) following the news.
The option, called ChatGPT Searchwill allow chatbot users to search for timely information the same way they would on the web and get answers with inline attribution to news publishers and other data sources. The company released a prototype product in July called SearchGPT, which was separate from the ChatGPT app and was only available to a limited number of users.
The new search features, which use OpenAI’s 4th model, will be made available to paid ChatGPT Plus and Team users on Thursday for mobile and web. OpenAI’s enterprise and education customers will be able to access the features in the coming weeks, and free users will be able to access the features sometime in the coming months.
Following the viral success of ChatGPT in late 2021, technology companies rushed to incorporate generative artificial intelligence into a long list of services, including online search. Microsoft and Google, which support OpenAI, have revamped their search products to include more conversational AI capabilities.
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Perplexity, a rival AI startup, is now in early talks to raise funds at a $9 billion valuation, Bloomberg previously reported. With ChatGPT Search, OpenAI is ready to bring similar AI search functionality to the 250 million people who use the chatbot every week.
“People want answers when they search for things, and getting an answer is difficult on the Internet these days. It takes a lot of research and you have to go through a lot of links,” said Varun Shetty, head of media partnerships at OpenAI, in an interview with Bloomberg News. “We believe that the fact that we can ask in a conversational way, with all this relevant context and high-quality sources on the other end, makes this experience better.”
In a pre-launch demo, the OpenAI team used the feature to ask ChatGPT about the weekend’s events in San Francisco. The app showed a summary list of activities pulled from local news sites. For a follow-up question about restaurant search, ChatGPT showed a map with a list of local restaurants. While ChatGPT previously included some quotes in its responses, the new search feature shows source summaries and preview images more prominently.
OpenAI has laid the foundation for its search offering through a growing number of licensing agreements with publishers, including News Corp. (from Rupert Murdoch), Axel Springer, Time magazine and European media companies such as Le Monde. Partnerships allow OpenAI to include more reliable and up-to-date information in its products. OpenAI said it incorporated feedback from partner publishers for ChatGPT Search on how the chatbot decides which articles are most relevant, as well as determining abstract length and article citations.
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“We are convinced that AI search will be, in the near future and for generations to come, the main way to access information, and the partnership with OpenAI positions Le Monde at the forefront of this change,” said Louis Dreyfus, CEO of Le Monde, in a statement.
OpenAI said its tool will not give preference to news publishers that have partnered with the company. Any website or publisher can choose to appear in ChatGPT Search, the company said. The company also wants to ensure its search product is useful to people looking for information beyond news.
“Search is a very broad space, and this is our first foray into it,” Shetty said. “We’re going to need to spend a lot of time improving experiences and focusing on shopping, travel, local – all those verticals that are important.”
Still, as with all generative AI products, OpenAI has to face the risk that its new research tool could invent false answers to questions. After SearchGPT launched in July, for example, reporters noted that a product demo got the dates of a festival wrong.
The stakes are particularly high for OpenAI and its rivals to obtain accurate information about the US elections next week. Starting on Election Day, OpenAI said ChatGPT users who ask about poll results will see a message encouraging them to consult news sources like the Associated Press and Reuters, as well as state or local election boards.
